A Model Program for Patient Navigation

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe a unique and innovative program that uses an encounter with the justice system to offer a health care plan for a subset of people going through drug court. With the application of social theory to clinical practice, an intervention in the form of patient navigation is developed to meet the needs of these clients. The article offers a description of the program and evaluation tools that may be used for standardization and subsequent replication of this patient navigation model to improve negative birth outcomes. Constraints on choice may be used to explain the process of health care decision making for this subset of people going through a court-mandated drug program. Considering the effects of constrained choice as documented by Bird and Rieker, a model program was developed providing evidence of an increase in program compliance for drug court clients and a reduction in the negative health outcomes for this group of at-risk people. Patient navigation within the framework of the constrained choice model offers a cost-effective means of improving health care outcomes for vulnerable populations.