Intermountain Health Saint Joseph Hospital – Women’s Health Navigators
Intermountain Health Saint Joseph Hospital recognized the need to establish a patient-centered navigation program that reaches across the continuum of care for women and their families. As a result, the Women’s Health Navigators program (WHN) was established.
The program serves women from ages of 15-92 and is centered on educating and empowering women on their health care journeys by creating a personalized approach focused specifically on whole-person care. The goal of the program is to reduce the stress of navigating the health care system so women can focus on their health and well-being, resulting in better health outcomes.
The navigators serve as the single point of reference for women and seek to build a trusting relationship, while assisting with simple to complex needs, including general information about services offered, answering questions, setting health related goals, connecting and scheduling appointments with providers, scheduling and coordinating specialist appointments, and identifying health and community resources. This work also benefits physicians and medical clinics by reducing the burden related to care coordination, resource identification and appointment scheduling.
Successes include the following:
- WHN has noted a 20 percent increase in referrals in 2024
- Navigators manage over 100 active referrals and average about 600 touchpoints on behalf of patients monthly
- WHN has served approximately 1,200 patients to date
- Patients self-refer for navigation support
- Specialists include general surgery specialists, breast surgeons, oncology, gynecology-oncology, cardiology and uro-gynecology
- 25 percent of referred patients require help to meet basic social needs including food, housing, transportation, and mental health
- 20 percent of patients initiate requests for support beyond their initial referral needs
To learn more about this program, please contact Heather Hagenson, director of operations and business development, Bloom Perinatal Behavioral Health Program, at [email protected].