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Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine have observed a significant rise in mammogram screening when patients were given the opportunity to schedule their own appointments. This finding has sparked discussions among Penn Medicine doctors regarding its implications.
Kimberly Waddell, Ph.D. at Penn Medicine, states that "Self-scheduling helps make the path to mammogram completion a little smoother, where you don’t have to find the time to call a scheduling line, wait on hold, or go back and forth trying to find an appointment that works for your schedule." She further adds that "Simple changes like these can have an outsized impact on preventive health screenings."
Breast cancer is estimated to affect one in every eight women. Mammogram screenings are vital as they can detect early signs of breast cancer and improve treatment outcomes. However, it has been noted that patients often fail to schedule mammogram appointments. To address this issue, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine initiated a study aimed at identifying whether reducing barriers to making mammogram appointments would result in an increase in scheduled appointments, according to a news release from Penn Medicine.
The study compared data from 2016 to 2019 when the University of Pennsylvania Health System introduced patient portals for easier appointment scheduling with data from 2014 to 2016 before the portal's implementation. The findings showed that out of approximately 35,000 patients sampled, there was an increase in mammogram screenings from twenty-two percent to fifty percent after introducing self-scheduling via patient portals and email reminders. This translates into 4,500 more people completing mammograms, as reported by Penn Medicine.
Waddell describes this method for reducing barriers as simple, effective, and inexpensive: "Low-cost interventions are particularly appealing because they require fewer resources. This function was scaled across the health system in a matter of months, did not require significant clinical or staff resources, is durable over time, and was associated with the gains we saw. That all checks several boxes in terms of improving patient care without requiring much in terms of additional staff time or financial commitment."
Jake Moore, MBA, director of Access Optimization at Penn Medicine and co-author of the study, further explains: "Patients want options on ways to schedule their appointment, and the self-scheduling feature provides another, easy 24/7 pathway to schedule when it’s convenient to them." Researchers are now planning a clinical trial to study the effects of reminding both patients and doctors to participate in mammogram screenings.
