# Close preventive care gaps a few patients at a time > Overdue screenings and vaccines surface on a live list, one person works it steadily, and a gap closes only when the care is done. Markdown view of https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/preventive-care-gaps — the HTML page is canonical. [](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks) 1. [Playbooks](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks) 2. [Patient Follow-Up](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks#patient-follow-up) Overdue screenings and vaccines surface on a live list, one person works it steadily, and a gap closes only when the care is done. - Elation - Spruce - Saves about 2 hrs per month (est.) Last checked Oct 27, 2026 against Tabflows v3.10.63 ## The situation A preventive care gap is any recommended screening, vaccine or wellness visit a patient is due or overdue for, like an annual physical, a mammogram, a colonoscopy or an annual flu shot. Preventive care gaps usually get found one of two ways. Someone notices an overdue mammogram while the patient is in for something else, or a quarterly report surfaces dozens of gaps at once and the team scrambles to clear them before a deadline. Neither reaches everyone. The patients with real gaps are often the ones who rarely come in, so no visit ever catches them. And a backlog worked in a rush tends to get one generic message, with little follow-up for anyone who does not reply. ## Steps 1. **Keep a live list for each screening or vaccine** In Patients, open Smart Segments, select New Segment and describe who belongs in plain language, such as patients over 40 who have not had a mammogram in the last year. Select Scan on a regular routine so newly overdue patients join the list, and confirm each gap in the chart before you reach out. 2. **Reach out to a few patients at a time** Each day or each week, take a handful of patients from the list and create one outreach Task for each, instead of working the whole list at once. Link the patient, add a clinic Tag for preventive care, and assign each Task to the one nurse, MA or care coordinator who owns the list. 3. **Make checking the list part of the routine** Save a filter for that Tag and the To do status under Favorite filters. The owner opens it on a set schedule, not only when a report deadline gets close. 4. **Change the approach when there is no reply** Record each outreach attempt in Comments. When a patient does not respond to the first attempt, make the next one a phone call or a different channel, not the same message sent again. 5. **Close the gap only when the care is done** Set the status to Waiting once the screening or vaccine is booked. Mark the Task Done only when it is confirmed completed, since outreach is a step toward closing a gap, not the same thing. ## The outcome Gaps close steadily, patient by patient, all year, instead of in a rush before a report is due. The patients who rarely come in get reached too, and each closed gap is a screening or vaccine that actually happened, a real chance to catch something early. ## Ask Sidekick Sidekick is the AI assistant inside Tabflows. Hey Tabflows, create an outreach task for each patient I list who is due for a screening, assigned to the front desk, with a checklist for contacted, scheduled and confirmed done. ## In the Product Library - [How to find a group of patients with Smart Segments](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/sidekick/how-to-find-a-group-of-patients-with-smart-segments) - [How to create a follow-up reminder task](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/tasks/how-to-create-a-follow-up-reminder-task) - [Collaborate on tasks with comments and mentions](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/tasks/collaborate-on-tasks-with-comments-and-mentions) - [How do I save and reuse a task filter](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/tasks/how-do-i-save-and-reuse-a-task-filter) - [Using Elation with Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/integrations/using-elation-with-tabflows) - [Using Spruce with Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/integrations/using-spruce-with-tabflows) [Read the full guide](https://www.tabflows.com/blog/preventive-care-gap-tracking) [Open it in the Automation catalog](https://www.tabflows.com/university/automations?automation=preventive-care-gaps) ## Related markdown Section index: [Playbooks](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks.md) Alongside this page: - [Advance directive tracking](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/advance-directive-tracking.md) - [After hours answering service](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/after-hours-answering-service.md) - [After hours message triage](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/after-hours-message-triage.md) - [Billing decline follow up](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/billing-decline-follow-up.md) - [Call follow up loop](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/call-follow-up-loop.md) - [Chronic care check ins](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/chronic-care-check-ins.md) - [Clia and compliance renewals](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/clia-and-compliance-renewals.md) - [Dea and license renewals](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/dea-and-license-renewals.md) Start here: - [Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/index.md) - [Tabflows pricing](https://www.tabflows.com/pricing.md) - [Tabflows FAQ](https://www.tabflows.com/faqs.md) - [About Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/about.md) - [Contact Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/contact.md) - [DPC workflow software](https://www.tabflows.com/dpc-workflow-software.md) - [Directory](https://www.tabflows.com/directory.md) - [Workflows](https://www.tabflows.com/workflows.md) - [DPC finder](https://www.tabflows.com/dpc-finder.md) Every page listed in sitemap.xml has a markdown twin at the same URL with `.md` appended, or by sending `Accept: text/markdown` to the canonical URL. Wider index: [llms.txt](https://www.tabflows.com/llms.txt), [llms-full.txt](https://www.tabflows.com/llms-full.txt), [sitemap.md](https://www.tabflows.com/sitemap.md), [sitemap.xml](https://www.tabflows.com/sitemap.xml). Support documentation: https://www.tabflows.com/university/library — append `.md` to any article URL for its raw markdown.