Table 6

Characteristics of site visits to screening mammography programmes in 18 countries, 1998

	Site visit covers^6-1	Site visit frequency	Who conducts	Who receives results
National programmes
Australia	E,T,R,C,A,I	Varies	Government, private	Screening programme, mammography facilities
Finland	E	Annual	Government	National Health Authority
Iceland	E	Annual	Government, private	Mammography facilities
Israel	E	Annual	Government	National Health Authority, screening programme, mammography facilities
Luxembourg	E,T^6-2	Varies	Screening programme, other	National Health Authority, screening programme, mammography facilities
Netherlands	E,T,R,C,A,I^6-2	Biennial	Other	National Health Authority, screening programme
United Kingdom	E,T,R,C,A,I	Every 1–3 years	Screening programme^6-3	Local, regional, National Health Authorities; screening programme; mammography facilities
State, provincial, local programmes
Established
Belgium	E,T^6-2,C^6-2,A^6-2,I^6-2	Biannual	Screening programme	Screening programme
France^6-152	E,T,R,C,A,I	Biannual to annual	Private	National Health Authority, screening programme
Italy^6-152	E^6-2	Biannual	Screening programme	Screening programme
Norway	E	Annual	Government, screening programme	Screening programme, mammography facilities
Portugal	E,T,C,A,I	Biannual	Screening programme	Regional and National Health Authorities, screening programme
Spain	E,T,R,C,A,I	Biennial	Government	Regional Health Authority, screening programme
Pilot
Germany^6-151	E,T,R,C,A,I	Annual	Screening programme	Screening programme, mammography facilities
Greece	E,T,R,C,A,I	Biennial	Private, screening programme, other	National Health Authority, screening programme, mammography facilities
Hungary	E,R,I	Annual	Screening programme	National Health Authority, screening programme, mammography facilities
Uruguay	E,T,C,A^6-2,I^6-2	Biennial	Private	Screening programme, mammography facilities
Registry programme
United States^6-4	E,T,C,A,I	Annual	Government, private	Regional and National Health Authorities, mammography facilities

↵6-1 Site visit covers: E = equipment, T = training, R = recruitment, C = communication of results, A = follow up of abnormal results, I = information systems.
↵6-2 Voluntary.
↵6-3 In the United Kingdom, site visits are conducted by the regional quality assurance team, which is a component of the screening programme.
↵6-4 In the United States, annual site visits are required of all mammography facilities under the federal Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA).
↵6-151 Denotes programme in implementation.
↵6-152 Denotes countries with a decentralised (subnational) organisation of screening mammography, but in which the totality of organised screening programmes attains national coverage.