What's your job? Paul Taylor, patient health navigator

After roughly two decades covering the health sector as a reporter and editor at the Globe and Mail newspaper, Paul Taylor seemingly took a big leap to the other side. In journalism parlance, that typically means jobs in public relations. But in reality, as Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's patient navigator advisor, Taylor's role falls somewhere in between.

Instead of working with other reporters and editors in traditional communications, Taylor's job focuses on patients and other visitors: how to help them navigate a hospital stay or get answers to health-related questions on topics such as providing long-distance support for cancer patients or protecting personal medical records.

While some hospitals have navigators for specialized units, Taylor's role is central to Sunnybrook's digital strategy. Taylor often receives queries via e-mail and then finds the experts, whether in-house or external, to get the answers. The information can then be published online.

Taylor says he loved working at a newspaper, but he had basically exhausted all job opportunities there -- a sentiment many people can feel after doing the same job for many years. So he took a buyout. The patient advising role is the perfect way to apply his skills as a journalist and do work in a field that matches his long-standing interests in science and health, says Taylor.

How did you get into this field?

In many ways it's planning ahead, seeing the writing on the wall. If you're in the newspaper industry it's a sad place to be right now. It's going through a lot of shrinkage, jobs are in jeopardy. Many of my friends were leaving the industry. It made me think of change too. In many ways, as a health editor, as a health reporter, I had been involved in patient navigation in some degree to start off with.

What is patient navigation?

Patient navigation involves many different people. It actually began in the cancer area a number of years ago where you would have specialized staff help people through the complex process of being treated for cancer. You end up with many different issues. There are financial issues, there's a specialist who will help you with appointments, to advise you with your drugs. Usually there's a team of people who will help you.

How is your current job unique?

I work for the communications department. It is part of the digital strategy at Sunnybrook. It's part outreach, but it's patient-centred care and being responsive to a patient's needs.
So what's the difference between communications and your role?
Traditionally, communications jobs have been primarily people who have been reacting to the news media. My job is to primarily interact with patients.

How does the Internet factor into all this?

The Internet is scary. There's a lot of great stuff out there, but there's also a lot of junk. There's a huge amount of information on the Internet. People often don't know necessarily where to look. Here you can provide them with direct answers to their questions.

Why?

Right now many Canadians go to U.S. web sites for information. If you have a disease you might go to the Mayo Clinic. There's no reason why Canadians shouldn't go to Canadian hospitals, to their web sites to get reliable information about their various conditions.

What are the similarities to journalism and why do you love it?

Many people go into journalism for altruistic reasons. They want to help people. Here, it's an extension of what I was doing in journalism and you have this real satisfaction of being able to help people on an individual basis, and hopefully you are able to help a larger community.

Is this role new for the hospital?

I'm the second person to do this. There was one person who was a former colleague of mine doing it before. Her name is Lisa Priest. She also worked at the Globe and Mail.
Was it an easy transition?

I left the Globe and Mail on a Friday in June and by the Wednesday I had a formal offer from Sunnybrook so it was a nice, easy transition. I was very lucky.

What's it like working in a hospital?

You're working with doctors, nurses, social workers. Their primary goal is to help people. I work with a lot of smart people and that's satisfying. It's very nimble. It's not very bureaucratic at all. What I find with the structure here is people are on a first-name basis, people are treated with respect.

What's the compensation like for patient navigation?

The range is somewhere between $80,000 and $90,000. That's a rough range. Navigation involves many different people in the health care sector.

What's a common question?
A lot of people actually want to have babies here in Canada. They want to find out how they can come here and have their babies.

Generally, what do you tell them?

If you're simply coming here to have a baby, you're not going to be able to find a doctor who will do it for you. The insurance wouldn't even cover it; the doctor couldn't get paid. If, for example, you're here and there's a medical emergency, there's an unplanned situation and you end up getting rushed to the hospital, they're not going to ignore you.

Is there a downside to this job?
As an editor or reporter at the newspaper, you could pick up the phone and talk to virtually anyone you wanted on the entire planet. Phoning from a hospital? That's not the case anymore. It can take a long time to get answers.

Were you warned?

Everyone told me before I left the job, this is what I was going to miss. You won't have that kind of access.

What's next if anything?

I just arrived here. You may have noticed, I usually stay in one place for a long time.

*Interview is edited and condensed