This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Community-based patient navigators may help improve outcomes for minorities with ESKD
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In a published article, researchers detail the rationale for implementing patient navigator programs in underserved communities to address social challenges faced by minority patients with ESKD.
“Members of racial and ethnic minority groups make up nearly 50% of U.S. patients with end-stage kidney disease and face a disproportionate burden of socioeconomic challenges compared with non-Hispanic whites,” Lilia Cervantes, MD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Denver Health, and colleagues wrote. “Patients with ESKD who face social challenges often have poor patient-centered and clinical outcomes. One path toward improving outcomes for this group is to develop culturally tailored interventions that provide individualized support, potentially improving patient-centered, clinical and health system outcomes by addressing social challenges. One such approach is using community-based culturally and linguistically concordant patient navigators who can serve as a bridge between the patient and health care system.”
Researchers noted that while there is evidence that patient navigators improve care for minority populations with cancer — citing the first patient navigator program from Harlem, New York, which improved breast cancer screening rates, early diagnosis and 5-year survival — knowledge is lacking in regard to such programs for patients receiving dialysis.
According to the researchers, barriers that can be addressed through patient navigators include the inability to obtain medications, transportation and child care. They also suggested that patient navigation successfully promotes health literacy — often low in patients of low-socioeconomic status and associated with nonadherence to care — through individualized education. In addition, because the health care work force that treats patients on dialysis does not reflect the diversity of the U.S. population, having a patient navigator that shares similar values and experiences as the patient can provide social support while connecting the patient to care. They can also facilitate communication between patients and the health care team.
While patient navigator programs are “promising,” researchers believe large multicenter studies with longer durations of patient follow-up are necessary.
“Additionally,” they wrote, “a cost-effectiveness analysis of the patient navigator program from both a societal and health care sector perspective would inform CMS of potential cost savings at each dialysis facility.
“Given the growing number of minority patients with ESKD, it is imperative that rigorously evaluated interventions that reduce health disparities among patients with ESKD nationwide be conducted and more broadly implemented.” – by Melissa J. Webb
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts