Volunteer Susan Smith (left), a former patient herself, helps patients find their appointments during lung cancer patient navigation days, which were developed and are run by a team, including Nurse Navigator Chantal Bornais (centre) and Clinical Manager Jennifer Smylie.
On Tuesday mornings, Susan Smith heads to the Ages Cancer Assessment Clinic at The Ottawa Hospital’s General Campus. She introduces herself to patients who have come for patient navigation day, and then heads out into the hallways to help them find their way to their appointments and tests.
Smith is a volunteer, a retired nurse, and has been a patient at the hospital herself.
“Sometimes I literally take them by the hand and walk with them,” she said. “People are stressed when they’re here, and they’re worried. I can help them get around and get through the day.”
Smith plays one of many roles that have dramatically changed the hospital experience had by patients who might have lung cancer.
Patient navigation days began in October 2014 as part of the hospital’s lung cancer transformation. The lung cancer team’s goal was to more quickly assess patients so they could rule out or diagnose cancer, and then shorten the wait time to treatment, said Clinical Manager Jennifer Smylie.
Just four months after the project launched, the median wait times from referral to first treatment for lung cancer had dropped from 92 to 48 days – over six weeks faster.
Cancer transformation has taken an enormous amount of teamwork from a wide range of professions and departments, said Smylie.
A chest radiologist and a thoracic surgeon meet daily to review chest CT scans before patients even come to the clinic, and order all the needed tests. Patients are then called by a nurse and invited to the navigation day: a one-day orientation that runs three days a week. Patients and their support people can meet the team, have a private assessment with a nurse, ask all their questions, and have tests done the same day.
It’s a long day, but each patient’s schedule is tailored to meet his or her own health needs while ensuring they get most – sometimes all – their tests.
“We try to connect people with what they need quickly in a very complex system,” said Smylie. “We serve a big region, and people who are traveling often prefer to make fewer visits to the hospital and get more done.”
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