Staffing time required to increase cancer-screening rates through telephone support

We describe the staff time required by the prevention care manager-tailored telephone support intervention, which significantly increased breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer-screening rates among female patients of Community Health Centers in New York City. For a sample of 38 women whose intervention was timed, prevention care managers spent an average of 99 minutes per woman on the phone and on related follow-up tasks over 18 months, or 248 minutes for each additional cancer-screening test obtained. Potential modifications to decrease the time required include automation of common tasks and the use of administrative data to further tailor outreach calls.