Experiences with a patient-oriented navigation program in Germany from the navigators' perspectives

BACKGROUND: The German healthcare system has a distinct separation of outpatient and inpatient care, with no coordination along a patient's care trajectory between these sectors. Additionally, support offers are often unknown by patients and providers. To address these barriers, we developed a patient-oriented navigation program for people with chronic conditions in Germany, which mainly focus on the patients' individual needs. METHODS: In a mixed methods study our navigation program for people with lung cancer and stroke is being evaluated in the German healthcare context. Patient navigators support study participants in their individual healthcare organization and coordination for 13 months. Qualitative interviews are conducted regularly with the navigators to capture their experiences with the navigation program. RESULTS: In our study, three navigators support a total of 122 study participants. Their activities include emotional support, help with bureaucratic matters, organizing outpatient care and gathering specialized information. There is a high overlap in navigation tasks between the two groups of patients. Interviews show that the navigators perceive their work as meaningful and find the exchange within the team and the offer of supervision very important. CONCLUSIONS: For navigation of chronic conditions that require complex care, such as lung cancer and stroke, it appears important to ensure that patients' emotional, social and coordination needs are met in a way that suits their individual wishes. The experiences of the navigators as providers of the navigation intervention can be used for a practice-oriented optimization of the navigation program. KEY MESSAGES: • Navigation tasks overlap to a large extent in both groups of patients despite the differences in disease trajectories. • We suggest that a patient-oriented navigation program focusing on social and coordination needs does not have to be disease-specific but can cover general needs of people with complex care situations.