Superior and compassionate breast care with cutting edge technology

MammoPad Improves the Patient Experience
While Improving the Bottom Line

The University of Tennessee Medical Center

Introduction

University medical centers are feeling the competitive pressure to build strong screening programs to attract patients into their tertiary programs. Significant investments in mammography centers (digital mammography equipment and workstations, facilities, breast specialists) have increased the urgency to attract and retain more women for breast health care.

Yet university medical centers often face the challenge of allocating scare resources for marketing and communication programs, when the perception is that highly profitable programs (i.e. cardiology, orthopedics) deliver a stronger return on investment. Although nobody can argue the profitability of these programs, increasing consumerism in health care is creating the need to attract patients prior to a major health concern.

Investments in breast health programs have become a major priority for many health centers because women who have had a positive well-experience are more likely to choose the same provider when making more difficult health care decisions for the families.

As it becomes more widely adopted, digital mammography has the power to influence a woman’s choice in a breast care facility, as they will want the best possible mammogram with the latest technology. Yet some early adopters of digital mammography found that the technology alone wasn’t enough to attract women to their center. The University of Tennessee Medical Center found that appealing to a woman’s need for personal comfort and fear of pain by providing a mammography comfort aid – the Hologic MammoPad breast cushion – led to a significant increase in patient volume.

The University of Tennessee Medical Center found that appealing to a woman’s need for personal comfort and fear of pain by providing a mammography comfort aid – the MammoPad breast cushion – led to a significant increase in patient volume.

High-Tech, Soft Touch Imperative

Mammography centers are rapidly adopting digital mammography to improve care, increase capacity and reduce cost through operational efficiencies. The FDA MQSA Scorecard shows that 30 percent of mammography facilities now offer digital mammography, up from three percent just four years ago.

The resulting increase in capacity has created the opportunity to accelerate a facility’s return on investment. However, providers are quickly learning that simply offering digital mammography does not necessarily increase volume. Women who avoided mammograms prior to digital mammography continue to avoid mammograms irregardless of this technological advance. Numerous studies show that pain, or fear of pain, is one of the reasons women avoid recommended screening mammograms Therefore, healthcare providers are recognizing the need to address one of women’s primary complaints about mammography – the discomfort associated with the exam.

The University Breast Center (UBC) at the University of Tennessee Medical Center serves Eastern Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky and Western North Carolina. UBC implemented digital mammography first (2003-4), and became a certified Softer Mammogram ProviderSM the following year (2004-5).

UBC adopted MammoPad and offered it in conjunction with digital mammography to capitalize on the many benefits digital has to offer. The center believed that combining the latest in imaging technology with the only comfort technology was essential to offering women the best mammogram possible, which would lead to an increase in the number of women choosing their facility.