Objective: In collaboration with rural county health departments (CHDs), we developed a patient navigation intervention to increase adherence to follow-up recommendations for women with abnormal Pap tests.
Methods: Local women were recruited, trained and placed in CHDs. Navigation was tailored to the follow-up care recommended. Effectiveness was evaluated in a quasi-experimental trial that included 13 intervention CHDs and 13 comparison group CHDs. Participants were enrolled from September 2008 through July 2010.
Results: A total of 478 participants were enrolled. The proportion that received recommended follow-up care was greater in the intervention CHDs (91.6%) than in the comparison group CHDs (80.8%) (p = .01).
Conclusions: These results suggest that development of policy to promote navigation with rural health care delivery systems has great potential to improve patient outcomes.
Keywords: Appalachia; Pap test; patient navigation; rural health.