Guiding the Journey
Strengthening Patient Navigation for Equitable Cancer Care Access in León
For many patients facing a cancer diagnosis in a fragmented health system, navigating that system can be as difficult as facing the diagnosis itself. Complex referral pathways, institutional silos, and misinformation create real barriers to care, contributing to missed appointments, delayed treatment initiation, and poorer clinical outcomes.
In León, the Needs Assessment found that 71% of cancer patients did not receive adequate information about their treatment and care. To address these barriers, health leaders across Guanajuato worked with C/Can to develop structured patient navigation programmes, embedding patient guidance as a standard part of hospital care.
Building Context-Specific Navigation Pathways
Workflows tailored to hospitals keep patients connected to care.
Delivering equitable access means addressing the organisational and social realities of public health institutions, not applying a generic, one-size-fits-all model.
León, working with C/Can, developed context-specific patient navigation workflows tailored to major public centres, including Guanajuato State Secretariat of Health facilities and the High-Specialty Medical Unit of IMSS.
Focused initially on breast and lung cancer, the two highest-burden malignancies in this context, these workflows set out clear referral pathways and monitoring indicators. Embedding patient navigators into hospital care pathways helps reduce administrative delays and keeps patients connected to care at each step.
Strengthening the Frontline Workforce
Navigation training helps healthcare workers offer patients more timely, accurate information.
Social workers, nurses, and medical liaisons are the primary link between communities and care facilities, so building their capacity was a core part of this work. Recognising this, León invested in structured training for the professionals delivering navigation on the ground.
Through professional training, at least 35 healthcare professionals across León, Celaya, and Mexico City gained core navigation competencies, communication skills, and implementation planning skills. Better-equipped frontline healthcare workers can offer patients more timely, accurate information, helping to close gaps in health literacy.
Extending Learning Beyond León: A National Community of Practice
Shared implementation tools and peer mentoring spread what works in León across Mexico.
Sustainable, shared learning also meant looking beyond León. The city’s patient navigation work was designed in collaboration with national institutions, including the National Cancer Institute (INCan), the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER), and health authorities in Mexico City.
This collaboration led to a national Community of Practice for patient navigators in Mexico. Through shared implementation tools and peer-to-peer mentoring, León is contributing to a broader, national approach to how health systems guide patients through cancer care.
Health Systems Strengthening in Action
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Health Service Delivery
Embedding patient navigation into hospital care pathways, training healthcare professionals to sustain it, and connecting the model to a national learning network.
Closing the Implementation Gap
By replacing fragmented patient handoffs with structured patient navigation, and working with C/Can throughout, León is closing the gap between community needs and hospital care. Investing in healthcare workers and building collaborative national networks moves equal access from policy intention closer to patients realities.
Key Project Outputs
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Patient Navigation Programmes in León and Mexico City
- Development of patient navigation programmes for public health institutions in León, Guanajuato. (Secretary of Health Guanajuato State.)
- Development of a patient navigation programme for High-Specialty Medical Unit of the Bajío, Specialty Hospital No. 1, Bajío National Medical Center, Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).
- Development of a patient navigation programme for public institutions in Mexico City.
- Establishment of a community of practice for patient navigators in Mexico.