Influence of a patient navigation program on timeliness of care in patients with esophageal cancer

Autor: Nikita Arora, Marcus Lo, Nader M. Hanna, Jennifer Pereira, Geneviève Digby, Robert Bechara, Shaila J. Merchant, Wilma Hopman, Shirley Li, Andrew Giles, Wiley Chung
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Cancer Medicine, Vol 12, Iss 10, Pp 11907-11914 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2045-7634
DOI: 10.1002/cam4.5882
Popis: Abstract Background Patient navigation (P.N.) is designed to eliminate barriers to care. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a novel P.N. program on timeliness of care in patients with esophageal cancer. Methods This retrospective study compared the timeliness of care for esophageal cancer patients before (January 2014–March 2018) and after the implementation of a novel P.N. program (April 2018–March 2020), called EDAP, at a tertiary care center. The primary outcome was time from biopsy to first treatment; secondary outcomes included time from biopsy to complete staging, biopsy to complete preoperative workup, and referral to the first point of contact. The outcomes were evaluated in the entire cohort and then in a subgroup of patients undergoing curative multimodality therapy. Results There were 96 patients in the pre‐EDAP group and 98 patients in the post‐EDAP group. There was no significant difference between pre‐ and post‐EDAP in the time from biopsy to first treatment and time from biopsy to staging in the overall cohort. In the subgroup of patients undergoing curative multimodality therapy, there was a significant decrease in time from biopsy to first treatment postnavigation (60–51 days, p = 0.02), in addition to a significant decrease in time from biopsy to preoperative workup and time from biopsy to staging. Conclusions This is the first study demonstrating that a novel P.N. program for patients with esophageal cancer improved timeliness of care. The group of patients who benefited most were those undergoing curative multimodality therapy, likely given the extensive coordination of services required by this group.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals