Northwell Health improves cancer care with nurse navigation

Northwell Health’s nurse-navigation pilot for cancer patients decreased the time to patients’ first oncology appointment, found a study in JCO Oncology Practice. The New Hyde Park, N.Y. health system paired nurse navigators with 7,000 patients who received cancer diagnoses and coordinated all their subsequent care, including specialty referrals, appointments, ancillary services and psychosocial support. The time to first appointment for breast cancer patients, for example, fell from 22.8 days pre-navigation to 6.8 days with nurse navigation. The navigators also advocated for patients and assessed whether they were good candidates for clinical trials. Northwell Health offered Spanish- or Mandarin-speaking navigators upon request. Patient-satisfaction scores remained high throughout care. An oncology nurse praised the study for containing information about implementing nurse navigation programs in large health systems. (MedPage Today article, 10/2/26)