CancerCare Manitoba is embarking on a new pilot project designed to make cancer treatment more bearable and efficient. It's called Patient Navigation, and it has already had positive results in cancer centres in the U.K.
"We'll look at the information we give the patient," said Sue Bates, the Director of Patient Navigation at CancerCare Manitoba. "[We make sure] we give it in a timely manner: the right person, the right time, the right place, the right format, and we have to look at how we pass the patients between these organizations so everybody knows what's going on."
It means a patient's treatment time can be drastically reduced. In some cases, treatment that would take 18 months can be cut to just 6 weeks.
It's more efficient, too. Instead of 50 different people handling a patient's health information, Patient Navigation can reduce that number down to three.
Patient Navigation is successful in the U.K.
Sue Bates visited the U.K. to see how it worked, and she saw those kinds of results.
Bates is now leading the project which is scheduled to begin in April. Patient Navigators will work with patients at CancerCare with a specific type of cancer.
"Every appointment, every trip to the hospital, every diagnostic test, every blood test that the patient goes through," she said.
The goals for patient navigation are:
- Save lives from cancer--Ensure that all patients who have a suspicious finding find resolution through more timely diagnosis and treatment.
- Eliminate barriers to care--Make sure that patients get to follow-up appointments and are aware of and can access needed services.
- Ensure timely delivery of services--Assist patients in moving through the health care system as needed in a timely manner.
The pilot project is set to run for a year, but the plan is to make it a permanent addition at CancerCare and all cancer centres across Manitoba.
With a story from CTV's Maralee Caruso
