Health Navigator Resources

• Barriers health navigators work to overcome.

• Defining key program terms.

• Differentiating between Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Health Navigators.

• Integrating Health Navigators Into Care Teams.

• Key Performance Indicators for Health Navigator Programs in Healthcare Service Settings.

• Health Navigator - Credentialing Process in Colorado.

  • Slides - includes links to specific web pages and external resources.

Health navigator policy and research resources

• Health navigators in the news.

• CHW/HN State Comparison.

• Defining key program terms.

• Health Navigator Studies – 2010-2015.

• Health NavigatorStudies 2012 - 2017.

  • Literature review parameters.

• Health Navigator Workforce Development Initiative Overview.

• 2017 Key articles.

Health navigator employer workforce study

Employer Surveys

Health employers were surveyed and asked to describe the competencies they look for in potential health navigators.

Study Reports

Read detailed summaries of the Colorado Health Institute’s findings in the reports below:

• Health navigator 2016 survey report.

  • Map of survey respondents.

• Health navigator 2017 supplemental survey report.

About the Surveys and Results

Under a contract with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Health Institute (CHI) conducted a survey of health employers in 2016. The purpose was to understand the current and future workforce issues regarding non-licensed health navigators. The survey asked potential employers to describe the competencies they would look for in a health navigator. The survey results help determine how many navigators are needed in the future as well as specific areas in which employers plan to use them. The survey results indicate that there is a growing demand by healthcare employers for a qualified unlicensed workforce to provide navigation services in urban and rural areas of Colorado. Health navigators assisted 195,000 underserved Coloradans in 2016. Sixty percent of employers who hire health navigators prefer to hire already trained personnel.

In 2017, CHI revisited the 2016 Lay Health Navigator Survey to include additional responses and insight. The 2017 Supplement takes a closer look at how the surveyed providers are currently using health navigators, and considers how 2017 answers differ or align with those from 2016.

Interested in how this data was collected? View the survey CHI used to gather input from organizations for the survey and supplemental survey.

Reports on Integrating Health Navigators into the Health Care Team

2018 Integrating of Health Navigators Into Care Teams.