North Broward Hospital District’s Breast Cancer Patient Navigator Program Benefits Uninsured Women with Breast Cancer

Elena Manuel suspected something was wrong when she felt the lump on her left breast last November. But, without insurance or money, she decided to let it go. ‘It’s probably nothing,’ she said to herself. She had arrived in the United States from the Philippines only a few months before with plans to study as a physical therapy assistant. In January, she could no longer ignore the problem. The lump in her breast had grown noticeably. She asked an acquaintance who worked at Broward General Medical Center what to do. Elena was directed to the Women’s Breast Cancer Center and had her first mammogram. Only one week before her 34th birthday, Elena was told that she had stage 2 breast cancer. The other news she received was that the North Broward Hospital District has in place a program to help women with breast cancer who are uninsured or do not have the ability to pay for treatment.

(l-r) Pia Delvaille, ARNP, Comprehensive Cancer Center, BGMC; patient Elena Manuel, and Paulet Royes, RN, case manager, Disease State Management, NBHD.

The Breast Cancer Patient Navigator Program at the North Broward Hospital District (NBHD) is treating women diagnosed with breast cancer without medical insurance or their ability to pay. The program, awarded through a grant by the American Cancer Society (ACS), provides female patients who have a positive mammogram or are diagnosed with breast cancer, a navigator to help the women arrange for medical treatment, financial, social and support services initiating from treatment to follow-up care. The goal is to navigate medically underserved women of all ages, whose household income is 200 percent or more below the federal poverty level, to get the care they need.

The program began at NBHD in 2006 and provides critical early identification intervention, greater community outreach, a broader range of services, a decrease in treatment variability and an increase in care. Patients are referred to the program from various referral sites including NBHD’s Community Health Services and medical centers, Florida Breast Cancer Resource Network, Broward County Health Department, Breast and Cervical Cancer Initiative and other community programs and clinics.