Woodholme Gastroenterology Associates Saves Time and Streamlines ASC Operations with gGastro® ERW

ASC Director discusses the success the practice experienced with the all-in-one gastroenterology software.

Woodholme Gastroenterology Associates, founded in 1986, is comprised of 15 physicians, 3 physician assistants and 6 nurse practitioners across its 9 practice locations and 2 ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) throughout Baltimore, Md. The group has used Modernizing Medicine® Gastroenterology’s gGastro Endoscopy Report Writer (ERW) in their ASCs for over 11 years. In this gGastro success story, ASC Director, Tina Smith, discusses the success the practice continues to experience by using gGastro ERW and its seamless integration with the award-winning* gastroenterology EMR, gGastro.

Improved Efficiency And Data Transparency

gGastro ERW integrates seamlessly with the gGastro electronic health records (EHR) system, so we can access our endoscopy and clinical records within the same system. We can look at the same chart simultaneously from various locations and see in near-real time what the nurse enters. This transparency removes extra steps and takes out the guesswork, which has helped improve efficiency and operations.

At the clinical level, when a physician completes an exam, they can schedule the procedure at the ASC via our gastroenterology practice management system, gPM™. The ASC staff can view the doctor’s consult note and understand why the patient is coming in because we have their history available at our fingertips. The integration makes it so much easier to communicate and helps eliminate time spent going back and forth with questions. Also, when a patient calls, we are better equipped to help them because we have instant access to their records.

Less Time Spent Documenting

gGastro ERW simplifies the process of writing a nursing note, anesthesia note and doctor’s note and is much quicker than paper. We can document an entire procedure in minutes, without a lot of lag time in between. We no longer have to dictate, and because most of the information is prepopulated, the physicians simply need to enter their findings. We now spend less time documenting and more time treating our patients.

I love the flexibility and ability to personalize our templates that the report writer offers. The physicians don’t have to take an extra step in documenting or chart differently than they normally would. It’s another example of freeing up the providers so there’s one less task they need to do. Most of our physicians are tech savvy and expect instant gratification, and gGastro ERW provides that.

Quality Measure Data Captured

The interoperability of the system between locations is priceless. gGastro ERW captures quality metric data in the ASC and automatically sends it back to our office. The system is designed so we can submit our MIPS measures together without worries of missing valuable data points. If data is missing, we’ll receive an alert so we can rectify the issue, and document everything needed.

gGastro ERW continues to prove its benefits, and we’ve greatly enjoyed using it at our ASC for the past 11 years.