…who are the people in your (mammography) neighborhood?
It’s the final day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month but certainly not the final day of caring for your breast health – that’s a 365-days-a-year thing. As we spend our time on this blog encouraging you to consistent and responsible care, we want to make you more comfortable with your breast healthcare experiences.
Just the other day we were talking about our deep and abiding love of Mammo Techs for all that they do to guide you through the mammogram procedure. Today we’d like to talk about a few of the other people with a role in your mammogram experience and why we love them too.
Chances are the first person you’ll “meet” is the scheduler whom you call to set up an appointment (if you are not doing a walk-in mammogram). This person will ask a few key questions to determine if you need a diagnostic or screening mammogram so you are set up for the correct exam – a diagnostic mammogram must be done with the radiologist on site to supervise. The scheduler will also find out about any other imaging tests of your breast so that those can be requested for comparison – remember how much we radiologists love old studies!! They make our job easier.
On the day of your mammogram you’ll be greeted by a receptionist. The receptionist is on the front line of receiving patients and gets all the paperwork started – breast history (family history and surgical), finding out which doctors will get your mammogram reports, and insurance. They have a tendency to smile at you – especially if you smile first!
There are many other people involved – a whole team in fact – whom you may never meet in person, but rest assured, they are working together to ensure your best possible health. These people span from the business office where they coordinate paperwork and billing for insurance to Quality Assurance (QA) people.
QA is one of the most important parts of the mammography process -mammography and breast imaging is the most highly regulated imaging test done. The regulations we follow literally fill books. There are important ways of tracking information on patients, radiologists and breast imaging tests so that every angle is covered, that codes are being followed, that education of all personnel is up to date. There is even a person in charge of tracking those patients who are recommended for biopsies so that results are correlated with the imaging tests.
And of course there’s your friendly neighborhood radiologist, carefully reviewing your mammograms to the smallest detail… because we care deeply and want the best for you. We care, and “we” means a whole lot of people!
Originally published 10/31/13 on mammographykc.com.
