Standing Up A Successful Health Navigator Program: The Circle the City Case Study 

Standing Up A Successful Health Navigator Program: The Circle the City Case Study 

Finding and accessing the right health information and care can be extremely challenging for consumers. One possible solution that provider organizations can use to make the consumer journey easier is “health navigators.” A health navigator is a care team member who helps consumers overcome barriers to access specialty care, understand insurance, improve health literacy, secure transportation, and manage social determinants. This approach can improve access and coordination of person-centered care and community supports – the question is how to make it work. 

In this one-hour live presentation, Kim Despres, Chief Executive Officer for Circle the City, will present her organization’s Health Navigator program, which connects consumers facing homelessness to health care and support after a hospital discharge. She will explain how the program works, why hospitals invest in it, and the difference it makes in the outcomes for both consumer health care and health system performance. 

The program was initially launched in November 2018, when Circle the City, Dignity Health St. Joseph’s, Keys to Change Campus, and CASS (Central Arizona Shelter Services) collaborated on a grant that funded the first Health Navigator, based in the St. Joseph’s Hospital Emergency Department. The program has since grown to seven hospitals. 

What This Case Study Explores 

• What Health Navigating does, including working alongside hospital clinical staff and social workers, building safe discharge plans, and coordinating the transition into medical respite, shelter, and ongoing care 
• The practical supports critical to a discharge plan, including reserved shelter beds, transportation, medication lists, identification, and connection to a primary care provider 
• The measures Navigators track each month, from new consumer encounters to connections to care and readmissions 
• The importance of strong partnerships with hospitals and outcomes reporting to protect referrals 

What Executive Attendees Will Learn  

• How to build hospital discharge plans and coordinate care transitions into medical respite, shelter, and ongoing care for consumers facing homelessness 
• How the program partners with hospitals and community organizations to remove barriers to care and reduce return hospital visits 
• How to track and use measures to demonstrate value to hospital partners and sustain the program 

Featured Speakers

Kim Despres, DHA, RN

Chief Executive Officer, Circle the City

Dr. Kim Despres oversees staff operations and the management of Circle the City’s two respite centers, two outpatient centers and a fleet of mobile medical units providing care throughout Maricopa County. Dr. Despres has been with Circle the City since 2014. Dr. Despres earned a Doctorate (Healthcare Administration) from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Nursing from Grand Canyon University.