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Northwell Health has launched a new comprehensive clinical nurse navigation program as part of its Northwell Health Cancer Institute. Through this program, cancer patients are provided with expert guidance for nearly every type of cancer, from diagnosis to treatment to survivorship.
The program, Cancer Care Direct, will be offered at Northwell’s 10 cancer centers in communities across Long Island, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island and Westchester.
“As an integrated health system, Northwell’s Cancer Care Direct program can truly navigate patients through the entire continuum of cancer care and other medical disciplines,” Dr. Richard Barakat, physician-in-chief and director of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, and senior vice president of cancer services, said in a statement.
“A cancer diagnosis is devastating,” Barakat added. “We want to provide our patients with every level of treatment and support they need and our trained nurse navigators will be there every step of the way. We want to help alleviate stress so patients can focus on getting well.”
In January 2023, Northwell Health Cancer Institute piloted Cancer Care Direct to its 83,000 employees across its health system, offering staff and their family members access to nurse navigators. Within the first two months, Cancer Care Direct received more than 100 referrals.
Nurse navigators serve as patient advocates who guide care, so patients can focus on their healing. They provide such personalized services an securing timely appointments for all specialties as well as imaging appointments; attending doctor’s appointments or arranging telehealth visits; helping with paperwork, connecting patients to clinical trials, assessment for pain management; palliative care; social work; physical therapy; behavioral health and accessing support services such as nutrition counseling, financial resources, transportation and survivorship programs.
A review of 29 patient navigation studies showed that patient navigation reduced the time to diagnosis and treatment, improved treatment adherence, improved patient quality of life and improved patient knowledge regarding their cancer and helped improve their communication with their healthcare team.
Prior to creating Cancer Care Direct, the Cancer Institute offered navigation to breast cancer patients in January 2022, according to Rita Mercieca, a registered nurse and senior vice president and chief administrator at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute.
The launch of the breast navigation program demonstrated the need to replicate this type of service for patients being treated in all cancer specialties; with 500 patients being navigated in the first year. Over the months, Mercieca and her team worked with chairs of cancer departments, physicians and others to develop the program. Currently, 10 dedicated nurse navigators are on staff, who speak five languages to focus on key patient populations across the region. Those include English, Spanish, Mandarin, Bengali and Vietnamese, with a language interpreter service available for others.
“Our promise to patients at any Northwell cancer center is if you have cancer and would like a navigator to help you through any part of your journey, we will connect you with a clinical nurse navigator,” Mercieca said in a statement. “We strive to not only provide our patients with the most advanced cancer treatments, but also provide patients with concierge service and support during one of the most challenging times in their lives.”
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