ASC Communications, Inc.

21 Executive Briefing Meaningful Use has three stages that gMed's solutions can help GI physicians achieve; when physicians meet all criteria, they become eligible for incentive payments. Stage 1 criteria includes EHR adoption and meeting clinical quality measures; Stage 2 includes demonstrating that the practice uses the EHR technology to improve patient care; and Stage 3 promotes using the EHR to improve patient outcomes. Even without the incentive payments, meeting Meaningful Use criteria gives practices better information to diagnose and treat patients, improve the quality of care and empower patients to become more involved in their treatment. 2. Patient flow and efficiency. The EHR improves patient flow and efficiency at the center by time stamping each step of the process from check-in to preop, entering the endoscopy suite, entering the recovery room and checkout. Practice physicians are then able to monitor where patients were slowed and make improvements to the process. "The Endoscopy Report Writer is completely central to managing our patient flow and how we make improvements to increase efficiency," says Dr. Aycock. 3. Interoperability with other providers. The EHR automati- cally updates to promote interoperability so that all clini- cians working with the patient can see the most up-to-date report in real time. The reports are designed to streamline the documentation process including procedure notes, referring physician letters, and discharge notes. The fully integrated system also provides advanced tools to promote quality of care and compliance with hospital and community information exchanges. 4. Patient education and satisfaction. Using the EHR, physi- cians can print a report, including the patient's images, to use as a tool when discussing colonoscopy results. Patients can take the report home and share it with their families and primary care physicians. "When I complete my note, it auto- matically prints copies for the patients and referring physicians so they know in real time their patient's colonoscopy results," says Dr. Aycock. "When the patient leaves my office, they get an abbreviated copy of the procedure notes with the integrat- ed photo and we explain our findings. It makes for a very good patient encounter and our patients are very complimentary of how efficient everything goes." 5. Clinical benchmarking and outcomes improvement. Gastro One gathers the GIQuIC data for internal benchmark- ing purposes. The practice monitors 100 percent of its colo- noscopies and gathers data on every physician's procedures; each physician receives a report on cecum and adenoma detection rates to identify areas for improvement. Last year, the practice's physicians performed approximately 23,000 colonoscopies and the leadership in the Gastro One practice could spot downward trends among physicians and harness the data to work with those physicians on improving outcomes. "We monitor the data so if a physician's ADR falls off, we have internal help and training to make sure skills are maintained," says Dr. Aycock. "That comes out of the Endoscopy Report Writer. We don't just spot check the ADRs, we gather all the data for complete accuracy." 6. Coding and billing efficiency. Since the EHR integrates with gGastro, the system generates a report for the billing department and submits the charge sheet information. All information is automatically changed in real time when a clini- cian makes updates to the records. "It is a seamless process across the entire system," says Dr. Aycock. "The whole practice management system is integrated across one platform. I don't have to submit separate billing diagnosis codes or a charge sheet; it all goes in based on our report findings." The report uploads into GIQuIC to avoid redundant infor- mation input and facilitate quality reporting. The system is designed to encourage timely payment, reduce claims denials from incorrect coding and create efficiencies in the process to allow for better resource allocation. 7. Technology support. Physician practices need a tech- nology team behind them to identify and fix any issues with their medical record systems. However, most groups don't have the budget to build an in-house technology depart- ment. For gMed customers, that's not an issue; the com- pany offers in-depth technical training and comprehensive support services to its customers. "Our electronic medical records are server-based and after we merged, we realized we didn't have adequate server power for our system," says Dr. Aycock. "gMed's qualified and com- petent server technicians analyzed the problem and help us expand. We've seen significant improvements since then." n "The Endoscopy Report Writer is completely central to managing our patient flow and how we make improvements to increase efficiency." — Dr. Richard Aycock gMed, a Modernizing Medicine company, provides the gastroenterology industry with a fully integrated platform consisting of an EHR system, Endoscopy Report Writer, practice management solution, patient portal, data analytics and revenue cycle management services. gMed is one of two selected vendors chosen by Olympus to provide its software solution to current EndoWorks and future Olympus customers. To find the right gGastro solution for your practice, visit www.gmed.com or call 888-577-8801.

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