Becker's ASC Review

73 GASTROENTEROLOGY Meet a GI group focused on physician autonomy By Patsy Newitt F ounded in April 2020, Brentwood, Tenn.-based One GI is a newcomer to the gastroenterology management group game, but the company is growing quickly. e group has had a massive year for acquisi- tions, with 11 deals in the last year and a half. e group's strategy, according to its execu- tives, is a regional and physician focus. Founder Michael Dragutsky, MD, created One GI aer seeing gastroenterologists who were having to consolidate amid rising payer costs and an increased need for leverage but were in turn losing their autonomy. "Basically, any gastroenterologist who practices in an urban or suburban area, you really need consolidation to maintain your independence," he said. "And if you do it right, you can mitigate loss of control issues or loss of control fears and concerns." One GI works to ensure that physicians are at the forefront. "Nobody understands what doctors deal with better than doctors," David Bridgers, MD, a gastroenterologist with One GI and Gastro- enterology Associates & Endoscopy Center of North Mississippi in Oxford, told Becker's. "One of the biggest issues that physicians are dealing with right now, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a lack of control." By focusing on regional groups that "make sense" with One GI's market — which encompasses Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana — leverage can be gained without requiring oversight from organizations thousands of miles away, Dr. Bridgers said. "One thing I saw with [other organizations] is that they were all sort of randomly placed," he said. "We felt like it would be in our best interest to achieve our goals to start centrally — that way, it's more of an organic group where we're all dealing with similar geo- graphic issues." is translates to the accessibility of patient care. Dr. Bridgers said he can easily call a colleague nearby for procedures such as endoscopic ultrasounds, which his practice does not offer. One GI also offers physicians something other groups do not: equal equity oppor- tunity, which helps with the organization's recruiting efforts. "Physicians are pretty independent people," Dr. Dragutsky said. "So when consolidation takes place, there is always going to be the fear of a little loss of control of your own destiny." One GI aims to offer physicians a way to execute control over patient care. "You lose your voice [without physician input]. e whole impetus to consolidate is to maintain your independence as a physician rather than being an employed physician," said Kevin Finnegan, MD, a One GI gastro- enterologist with Associated Endoscopy in Brentwood. "At the heart of that is maintain- ing your voice and maintaining your input in how the organization is run." n 1 legacy of COVID-19 will be waves of later-stage cancer patients, says GI director By Marcus Robertson The COVID-19 pandemic changed society in several ways, seemingly over- night. Prakash Gatta, MD, director of foregut surgery at Overlake Medical Center and Clinics in Bellevue, Wash., joined "Becker's ASC Review Podcast" to talk about what he thinks the pandemic's legacy will be on gastroenterology. Note: This is an edited excerpt. Question: What do you think the lasting legacy will be of COVID 19? Dr. Prakash Gatta: I have two answers to that. I was personally affected by CO- VID-19. I contracted it in March of 2020. Having gone through that personally, and still affected to some degree and having never been a patient before, I've seen all these specialists and pulmonologists, primary care doctors, trying to understand how it has affected my body. I'm not sure what the long-term effect of that infection would be for me per- sonally. The biggest thing I learned with COVID-19, as well as being in a hospi- tal that was hammered, was the resilience, bravery and valor of the healthcare workforce. It has helped reenergize my belief in this profession as a calling. Professionally, I think the legacy will be, for example, we are going to see a wave of patients with cancer at a later stage than we normally would've. I'm hopeful that we will settle back down, and I don't think the new normal will ever be like the old normal. We will never be the same again. n "You lose your voice [without physician input]. e whole impetus to consolidate is to maintain your independence as a physician rather than being an employed physician." Kevin Finnegan, MD, Associated Endoscopy

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