Outcomes | Citations |
---|---|
Patient and caregiver outcomes | |
Positive Outcomes | |
 Improvements in general health and wellness | |
  • Reduced unmet needs | |
  • Improved quality of life | |
  • Improved mental health | [33] |
  • Improved activities of daily living | [33] |
  • Reduced co-morbidities | [23] |
  • Improved understanding of patients’ health conditions and their management | |
  • Decreased worries, concerns and stress | |
  • Reduced caregiver strain or depressive symptoms | |
  • Improved biomarkers for chronic disease (e.g., HbA1c; fewer HIV clients with a detectable viral load | |
 Improved self-efficacy, self-management or empowerment | |
 Increased patient satisfaction regarding services for themselves or their children | |
 Increased access to care: | |
  • Care overall (i.e., increase in number of patients seen) | [22] |
  • A primary care medical home | |
  • Timely primary care | [38]; |
  • Medications | [43] |
  • More access to culturally appropriate care | |
  • Specialty or sub-specialty care (for children; for AIDS/HIV patients) | |
 Better follow up and uptake of screening: | |
  • Reduced missed medical appointments | [43] |
  • For legal counsel | [47] |
  • Increased patient encounters and communication with primary care | |
  • More mammography or cancer screening according to guidelines | |
 Financial, employment, and health claims addressed | |
  • Increased employment and reduced financial stresses | [33] |
  • Reduced numbers of mental health patients who applied for disability benefits, with significantly higher behavioural health claims | [33] |
  • Proportion of patients suffering from mental illness who become insured | [23] |
  • Patients connected to legal services reported positive impacts on finances and compliance with medical appointments and treatment | [47] |
  • More affordable services for working poor | [35] |
Neutral or negative outcomes | |
 Discomfort with male navigators for female breast cancer care, lack of care continuity and poor navigator follow up | [36] |
 No differences in employment, hours worked or earnings | [38] |
Provider outcomes | |
 Satisfaction with navigation programs | |
 Increased communication among primary care providers and community services or providers | |
 Increased knowledge and skills | |
 Increased trust between |  |
  • Navigators and physicians | [41] |
  • Patients and their attorneys | [47] |
 Improved care coordination | |
 Navigators empowered in their community advocacy role and were promoted in their positions | |
Health system outcomes | |
 Reduction in emergency room and/or hospital use | |
 Prevention of premature institutionalization | [52] |