Breast cancer screening remains one of the most effective preventive interventions, yet despite well-established guidelines, mammography rates continue to fall short of national targets in many practices. The good news? Team-based care can make a significant difference in screening rates without overburdening physicians.
Why Team-Based Care Works
Traditional mammography promotion puts the onus solely on the provider during a brief face-to-face encounter. But what happens when a patient leaves the office with good intentions but hits a roadblock? They forget to schedule, worry about cost, or just get busy with life.
Team-based care spreads the responsibility to the entire care team. Rather than placing the full responsibility on the primary care provider, practices can engage the entire care team in the process:
- Nurses and Medical Assistants can review screening eligibility during intake and flag overdue patients for the provider.
- Care Coordinators can track mammography compliance, reach out to patients with reminders, and help schedule appointments.
- Patient Navigators can address barriers like lack of transportation or fear, ensuring patients can follow through with referrals.
- Providers can focus their limited face-to-face time on discussing the importance of screening and reinforcing patient education.
Patient Identification and Outreach
Care teams can leverage EHRs to generate regular reports of eligible patients and systematically reach out to those who are due for screening. Automated reminders, whether through patient portals, phone calls, or mailed letters, have been shown to significantly improve compliance when applied consistently. In addition, EHR data can help identify patients who may need extra support, allowing practices to target outreach efforts more effectively.
Getting Started with Team Based Care
Practice leaders play a critical role in supporting team-based mammography efforts by providing resources such as staff time for training and quality improvement activities. Clear communication of organizational priorities ensures that team members view screening improvement as a shared practice-wide commitment, not an added burden.
Designating a “mammography champion” can be especially effective. This individual tracks screening rates, coordinates team efforts, and helps resolve any problems as they arise.
To achieve lasting success, mammography promotion must be embedded into routine workflows rather than treated as a temporary project. Integrating screening discussions into annual wellness visits, chronic disease appointments, and even urgent care encounters helps normalize the practice. Ongoing reinforcement through staff meetings, feedback sessions, and continuing education helps keep mammography improvement a visible and sustained priority.
The Path Forward
Team-based approaches to mammography improvement represent a significant opportunity for primary care practices to enhance their preventive care delivery while reducing physician workload. Success requires intentional planning, clear role definition, and sustained commitment to quality improvement.
The evidence strongly supports collaborative models that engage multiple team members in mammography promotion. Practices that embrace these approaches often discover improvements extend beyond breast cancer screening to other preventive services, creating a culture of proactive, team-delivered care that benefits patients across multiple health domains.
As healthcare continues evolving toward value-based models that reward preventive care outcomes, team-based mammography improvement strategies position practices for both immediate patient benefits and long-term organizational success. The investment in developing these capabilities pays dividends in improved screening rates, enhanced patient satisfaction, and stronger team cohesion around shared quality goals.