"It starts with 'Aloha…'" Stories by the Patient Navigators of Ke Ku'una Na'au Program at The Queen's Medical Center

Abstract

The Ke Ku'una Na'au (KKN) navigators were first hired in 2016 at The Queen's Medical Center (QMC) in Honolulu, Hawai'i, with a focus on reducing hospital readmissions for socially and economically vulnerable Native Hawaiian adults. To our knowledge, QMC was the first acute care hospital in the state to implement the use of community health workers into the health care system as navigators for patient needs in the community following discharge. This article tells the story of our experiences as the 5 patient navigators from the Native Hawaiian community during the first 2 years of the program. The article describes how we ended up in this vocation and a summary of what we have learned. We also describe walking with our patients through their journey of healing, a journey which begins at the bedside during hospitalization starting with the moment we say, "Aloha." (A companion article in this issue describes the KKN program history, design, and clinical outcomes in more detail.) We hope these stories are inspirational to others who fill the community health worker role and may walk in our shoes in other health care organizations and/or help support the planning and implementation of similar programs to meet other communities' health needs. We consider the implications for community-clinical linkages.

Keywords: Native Hawaiian; health care system; hospital; patient navigators.

Figure 1

The Ke Ku‘una Na‘au care team at The Queens Medical Center, including (from left to right): Anthony Hereari‘i Negrillo (Patient Navigator); Damien Hanake‘awe (Patient Navigator); Lisa Garrett (Nurse Practitioner); Jonna “Minky” Ho‘opai (Patient Navigator); Laura Kau‘ionlani Nishizaki (Project Coordinator/Social Worker); Robert Naniole (Patient Navigator); Kehau Pu‘ou (Patient Navigator).