UTILIZATION OF ONCOLOGY NAVIGATION SERVICES TO ADDRESS OUTMIGRATION AND APPOINTMENT CONVERSION PATTERNS AT A COMMUNITY CANCER CENTER.
Significance & Background: Oncology Nurse Navigators (ONN) play a vital role in the success of a community cancer program. Often wearing many hats, Navigators are tasked with balancing programmatic and administrative duties. Purpose: With the opening of a new cancer program, we had the unique opport...
| Publicado en: | Oncology Nursing Forum Vol. 53; no. 2; p. 253 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Oncology Nursing Society
Mar2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Significance & Background: Oncology Nurse Navigators (ONN) play a vital role in the success of a community cancer program. Often wearing many hats, Navigators are tasked with balancing programmatic and administrative duties. Purpose: With the opening of a new cancer program, we had the unique opportunity to explore innovative approaches to Oncology Navigation for our community. Interventions: Areas of feasibility that we wished to measure without compromising face-to-face patient interactions included breast cancer outmigration mitigation and increasing New Consult visit conversion for patients seeking care at our cancer center. An on-site Breast Care Center provided a platform for the launch of a dedicated post biopsy clinic in July 2025 to capture, educate and navigate newly diagnosed breast cancer patients as timely as pathology finalized. Intake Navigation processes began in September 2025 with the implementation of outbound calls made by the ONN to patients prior to consultation. Intake Navigation calls allowed the Navigator to establish rapport with patients prior to their appointments and provide education about visit expectations with goals to measure success by increase in appointment conversion rates. Preimplementation data showed 53% of patients referred to the Cancer Center scheduled an appointment, and 74% who scheduled an appointment arrived on day of Consultation. Results: Post biopsy breast care navigation process from July-September 2025- Eleven patients were diagnosed with breast cancer. Post-Biopsy Clinic was successfully executed in 9 of 11 patients (82%); Average time of results communication was less than 1 business day. Intake Navigation calls data for September 2025- Eleven patients referred to Medical Oncology for services were eligible for an intake call. The ONN was able to reach 8 (73%) patients and was able to perform an in-person introduction during the consult visit for 6 (75%) of those captured over the phone. Discussion: Preliminary results show that intake navigation processes are feasible. We look forward to sharing more robust data and long-term results of our newly implemented intake processes at ONS Congress 2026. |
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