Melonie Lagalante, assistant vice president of diagnostic and outpatient services at St. Tammany Health, spoke to Becker’s about the outcomes the health system expects to see from the partnership.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Can you elaborate on the specific challenges in radiology follow-up care that this partnership aims to address?
Melonie Lagalante: One of the largest radiology follow-up care challenges is ensuring that every actionable finding is followed by the appropriate next action — whether that’s more imaging, a referral or a treatment plan. Recommendations for follow-up are too commonly documented but not actively pursued, leaving gaps in patient care.
At St. Tammany Health System, we’re dedicated to delivering high-quality, patient-centered care. But as with most health systems, we saw that the workflow of keeping follow-ups on schedule could be immensely complex. Patients move from provider to provider, results don’t always make it to the right clinician in a timely manner, and traditional workflows rely on manual tracking—creating opportunities for lost follow-ups.
Through our partnership, we’re addressing these critical failure points head on. Their platform ensures that every follow-up recommendation is identified, tracked, and acted on, creating a high-reliability system where no patient falls through the cracks.
Q: What measurable improvements do you anticipate to see as a result of this partnership?
ML: We anticipate achieving several significant enhancements with this integration, both on clinical outcomes and operational efficiency. With automated follow-up monitoring and care coordination features, we can minimize lost follow-ups substantially, reaching more patients with timely interventions and reducing delays in diagnosis of life-threatening cancers.
Follow-up automation also cuts administrative loads off our radiologists and care teams, allowing them to focus on more patient care and less on process.
Ultimately, the biggest measure of success is that all patients who need follow-up care receive it on time, every time.
Q: What role does the American College of Radiology Learning Network’s ImPower Program play in this collaboration?
ML: Our participation in the ACR Learning Network’s ImPower Program is an integral part of this collaboration. The program provides a structured, data-based approach to improving radiology follow-throughs, including best practices and a national model for streamlining care quality.
Through the ImPower Program, we’re able to better gauge our improvement against national peers, implement evidence-based change and streamline follow-up care processes for optimal effectiveness and efficiency.
