Artificial intelligence is everywhere in healthcare. But while detection algorithms continue to advance, many organizations are still asking a more fundamental question: How do we ensure recommended care actually gets completed?
A recent Healthcare IT News article by Bill Siwicki highlights how Sentara Health is answering that question by moving beyond point solutions and focusing on follow-through. By using Inflo Health’s AI-based workflow and analytics platform, Sentara has transformed how it manages imaging follow-ups across the enterprise, generating measurable clinical and financial impact in the process.
The Challenge: Follow-Up Is Where Care Often Breaks Down
Imaging follow-ups are critical for early diagnosis, timely intervention, and patient safety. Yet across health systems, follow-up recommendations are frequently tracked manually, spread across systems, or dependent on individual vigilance. The result is variation, missed care, and unnecessary burden on clinical and administrative teams.
Sentara recognized that improving detection alone would not solve this problem. The real opportunity lay in closing the loop: ensuring that recommended follow-ups were scheduled, completed, and visible to the care team, reliably and at scale.
The Approach: AI That Orchestrates, Not Just Identifies
Rather than adding another task list or dashboard, Sentara deployed Inflo Health to automate and standardize follow-up workflows across service lines. Inflo ingests clinical recommendations, routes patients into automated pathways, and provides real-time visibility into what is scheduled, completed, or requires escalation.
The key was integration into existing workflows. Teams no longer had to hunt for information or manually reconcile lists. Instead, follow-up status became transparent and actionable within a single system.
As Prasanna Mohanty, EVP and President of Ambulatory Care and Enterprise Services at Sentara, explained in the article:
“With one click, they can track the patients who are scheduled and completed through automated pathways, identify patients that require additional outreach or escalation, and initiate the appropriate next step.”
That simplicity matters. When AI reduces friction instead of adding steps, adoption follows.
The Results: Reliability, Visibility, and Real ROI
According to the Healthcare IT News report, Sentara realized approximately $1.7 million in value tied to completed follow-ups captured through the AI-enabled process. But the impact goes beyond revenue.
By automating follow-up workflows, Sentara improved consistency across the enterprise, reduced administrative burden for care teams, and gained system-wide insight into follow-up performance. Leaders could see where patients were moving through care pathways and where intervention was needed, creating accountability without adding manual work.
This shift reflects an important evolution in healthcare AI. The value is not just in identifying risk, but in ensuring action is taken and care is completed.
What This Means for Healthcare Leaders
Sentara’s experience reinforces a critical lesson for organizations building their AI strategies: outcomes matter more than algorithms. High-performing AI programs focus on orchestration, integration, and reliability, not just detection.
As health systems plan for 2026 and beyond, the question is no longer “Can AI find this?” but “Can AI ensure this gets done?” When AI is designed to support clinicians, align with workflows, and close care gaps, it becomes a catalyst for safer, more reliable care.
To read the full story, including Sentara’s perspective and detailed results, visit the Healthcare IT News article by Bill Siwicki here:
🔗 https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/sentara-gains-17m-ai-based-workflow-and-analytics-tool
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