Development of the Community Health Navigation Institute: A business model for sustainability

Community Health Workers (CHWs) have been successful in health promotion, but their role has at times been limited to delivering informal, community-based health outreach while creating linkages between health providers and the community. Similarly, Patient Navigators (PN) have been primarily embedded in the clinical setting, who assists patients in obtaining more timely screening, detection and treatment of health conditions. This presentation by CHWs describes the innovative Community Health Navigator (CHN) program and the Community Health Navigation Institute (CHNI) implemented by the Latino Health Collaborative, which builds on the strengths of CHWs and PNs. The comprehensive competence-based curriculum includes introduction to principles of informal and adult education. Participants also discuss the Health Care System, including patients rights and responsibilities, HIPPA guidelines and regulations, insurance plans, and community resources. Participants also analyze Barriers to Health Care and discuss solutions to the barriers that are commonly experienced when navigating the health care system. In the final module, participants are introduced to Health Promotion and are able to select a concentration, such as cardio-vascular disease, asthma, diabetes, and cancer, among others. This presentation describes the impetus and challenges in the development of the CHNI and the business model. To support the sustainability of the CHNI, Health Plans, Community Clinics, and Hospitals are able to pay to have their staff trained as CHNs or are also able to recruit from those who completed program requirements, as their strategy to facilitate the coordination of care, increase patient satisfaction and to reduce costs associated with avoidable hospitalizations.