Using a lay cancer screening navigator to increase colorectal cancer screening rates

Introduction: preventive care is often not performed during the ambulatory office visit due to the acute nature of the visit. one possible strategy is the use of a lay cancer screening navigator using the lay health worker model. methods: a training program for the lay cancer screening navigator and a patient registry for colorectal cancer screening was developed. the re-aim framework was used to evaluate the intervention. descriptive statistics were generated for patient demographics. results: reach: the lay cancer screening navigator contacted 91.9% of eligible patients. effectiveness: at baseline,28.6% of patients were current on their colorectal cancer screening,40.5% at 6 months,and 42.2% at 12 months. adoption: patients contacted all reported being receptive to the intervention. implementation: of the 368 fecal immunochemical test kits mailed,151 were returned (41.0%),and 26 (17.2%) were positive. maintenance: the percentage of patients who were current between 6 months and at 12 months were not significantly different. discussion: this study demonstrates that the use of a lay cancer screening navigator to increase the rate of colorectal cancer screening is a viable strategy. © 2015,american board of family medicine. all rights reserved.