Monitoring and developing volunteer patient navigation intervention to improve mammography compliance in a safety net hospital.

Abstract

62 Background: Mammography screening is crucial for cancer detection. Screening rates have been declining in patients of low socioeconomic status and minorities, supporting the need for intervention at our safety-net hospital. Methods: Patients with a primary care provider order for screening mammograms over a one month period were monitored for 90 day compliance. This analysis determined compliance rate and optimal intervention period. A prospective randomized trial was done to improve compliance using a volunteer patient navigator. All patients received educational material and were randomly assigned to the control or intervention group. The latter were further educated on breast cancer and mammograms and, if amenable, were escorted to a walk-in mammogram. The study period was 3 weeks with 49 participants-24 patients in the control and 25 patients in the intervention group. The principal outcome was the 14 day mammography compliance rate. Secondary analysis examined efficacy of the study with respect to patient demographics, prior mammography compliance, family history of cancer, beliefs on mammography and past medical history and analyzed using GraphPad Prism 7. Results: Analysis revealed a noncompliance rate of 52% with majority compliance occurring within two weeks of order placement. The patient navigation intervention significantly improved compliance by 34% (42% in the control group, 76% in the intervention group, p < 0.05 Fisher exact test). Intervention significantly improved compliance in patients with low susceptibility to cancer belief, who understood benefits of mammography and early diagnosis (p < 0.05 Fisher exact test), had a prior mammogram (p < 0.05 Fisher exact test), a family history of cancer (p < 0.01 Fisher exact test), hyperlipidemia (p < 0.05 Fisher exact test), and those employed (p < 0.05 Fisher exact test). Conclusions: A system to monitor compliance and intervene using patient navigation significantly improved mammography compliance of patients in a safety net urban hospital. The relatively straightforward design of the volunteer based intervention makes it affordable, easily replicable and perhaps beneficial at other institutions.