Having patients schedule their own mammograms is much more efficient than requiring radiology staff to do the job and reduces the workload for these employees, according to data published this month.
In September 2019, Mayo Clinic's primary care practice unveiled an application allowing patients to self-schedule their screening mammograms. Providers involved in the program analyzed one years’ worth of results and reported positive findings, along with some drawbacks, in the December issue of JMIR Medical Informatics.
Patient-scheduled exams, on average, required less than one action from staff, putting to rest the notion they would have to “clean up” appointments made online. Screening exams scheduled in-house, meanwhile, required additional work from staff members.
While app-based scheduling did slightly increase patient no-shows, Rochester, Minnesota-based researchers believe the benefits outweigh the downsides.
“Because automated bulk ordering of mammograms was part of the self-scheduling process, providers were freed up to do other activities besides ordering routine mammograms,” Frederick North, MD, with Mayo’s Department of Internal Medicine, and co-authors added. “As preventive services and other chronic care services take up an increasing amount of provider time, decreasing provider time for this activity is very important.”
The group looked over appointment data from patients who registered with Mayo’s online services and had screening mammogram “appointment activity.” Overall, 14,387 of 93,000-plus patients (15.3%) used the web or mobile app to schedule or cancel their exam.
Nearly a quarter of self-scheduled mammograms were booked outside normal business hours or on weekends, the group reported. Exams reserved online resulted in more no-shows (5.7%) compared to staff-scheduled screenings (4.6%). The odds of an individual not showing up did drop after adjusting for age, race and ethnicity, the authors noted.
An overwhelming majority (93.5%) of self-schedulers only needed one action to book their appointments, leaving “very little” work for staff. The payoff, North et al. added, may even show up on the bottom line.
“We did not measure the actual staff labor cost for each finalized appointment associated with self-scheduling and staff scheduling. However, with the average self-scheduled finalized visit using only 9.7% (0.197/2.04) of the staff appointment actions compared to a staff-scheduled appointment, there is likely a significant savings,” the authors explained.
Read the entire study here.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.