Patient Navigation System

Patient Navigator Program was created to bridge the gap between the Asian American and Pacific Islander patient and the healthcare system. It aims to increase healthcare access by breaking the barriers of language, culture, unfamiliar healthcare system, and economics.

• adequate health care was not reaching many Asians in the community,
• disparity in care, although found to be largely due to language barriers, was also due to:
  • unfamiliar healthcare system
  • lack of health insurance
  • cultural incompatibility with western treatment methods
• there are no health programs addressing Asian American health issues specifically.

The patient navigator program was designed to assist Asians within the community in navigating and understanding the health care system by providing volunteer patient navigators who serve as a connection between the health care provider and the Asian American seeking health care access.

• Enhanced volunteerism from various Asian ethnic communities,
• Local health care institution engagement,
• Resource collaboration,
• Reduced fixed costs in programming,
• Asian American immigrant integration through language education,
• Patient-centered healthcare access.

• Patient Navigators can enroll consumers to health insurance coverage
• Hundreds now having their own primary care doctors, setting up their own appointments, independently responsible for their own health care needs,
• Hundreds of healthier Asian Americans in Michigan.