Grant: Summer Program in Aging

For many seniors, navigating the healthcare system is challenging and creates high levels of stress. Patient navigators are becoming increasingly popular across Canada as one mechanism to help patients manage their journey of care. Navigators work to improve the quality and coordination of care by serving as guides to patients and their families on how to best access care in the hospital and the community. In 2020, a new patient navigator role was introduced at Sunnybrook Hospital in partnership with a community agency, SPRINT Senior Care, to help seniors' bridge the care gap from hospital to home. Over the past 2 years, this program was refined so it could be effectively integrated into the existing hospital system and has now been expanded by hiring new navigators. At this point in time, there are a number of questions regarding how this program is impacting the health outcomes of patients. To address this need, the focus of this research will be to evaluate the patient navigator program to determine which types of patients are being supported by the navigators, what types of services are being provided, to learn about their hospital stay, and to see where they are discharged into the community. This will be accomplished by collecting survey, hospital chart, and health administrative data from databases managed by a public payer (Ontario government) on 200 patients supported by a navigator and a matched case group of 200 patients who were not supported by a navigator. As well, the researchers will undertake qualitative interviews with seniors and caregivers who have received navigation, healthcare providers, and administrators about their experiences being cared by or working with patient navigators. These findings will be used to create resources that can educate patients and families about navigation services, and that can educate providers and decision-makers on how to develop, implement and optimize their own navigation services for their senior patients.