Gastroenterology Care Center

Client: Gastroenterology Care Center

Specialty: Gastroenterology

Product: gCare™ Medical Office

Employees:
11 Physicians
3 Nurse Practitioners, 2 Physician Assistants
57 Employees

Location: Miami, FL

Results:
Reduced costs by $175,934
Increased E&M revenues by $155,000
Estimates 5-year return of $1,244,670
Reduced 0.5-1 physician work-hours per day
Eliminated paper charts
Increased staff productivity and control
Enhanced call turn-around and patient satisfaction

Interfaces:
Practice Management (Mars Medical Systems)
Laboratory (LabCorp, Quest)
Transcriptions (Transform MD)

Gastroenterology Care Center of Miami, FL is a thriving 11 physician Gastroenterology practice focused on quality and patient satisfaction. “We have always been a leader in adopting new technology, and this decision was crucial to our success.” Said James Leavitt, MD; Executive Director. “We receive more than 1,500 phone calls every day, 15,000 new patients every year and have more than 50,000 interactions with existing patients during the same year. We needed a product that could handle the load, a partner that understood our practice and had the right vision and goals for the future.”

Gastroenterology Care Center chose gMed after more than two years of intensive evaluations. In the first 4 months the practice was able to eliminate the paper chart, enhance physician and staff productivity and increase the quality of service. “We no longer manage (or pay for) paper charts, physicians are leaving 30 to 60 minutes earlier every day, I have better control of the staff and patients get return calls, results and refills very fast, with nothing falling through the cracks”, said Alex Fernandez Jr., MBA; Practice Administrator. “So far we have reduced 2 ? Full time equivalents in medical records, eliminated all transcription and compliance costs and increased E&M revenues between 5% and 12% per physician.”

Gastroenterology Care Center achieved immediate results because gCare™ was pre-configured for Gastroenterology. “Most practices underestimate the cost of customization.” Said Jim Leavitt, MD. “Physician time is very expensive, and most non-specialized products require more than 500 hours of work in order to have the right lists, coding logic and documents for Gastroenterology. We needed a product that provided quick results and immediate return because our practice could not afford to slow down. We expect to see an even greater return when we implement the Ambulatory Surgery Center module.”

In order to enhance patient service and reduce costs, gMed, Mars Medical Systems and Gastroenterology Care Center are developing an Internet self-service patient portal to manage appointments, refills, laboratory results, patient history forms and HIPAA-compliant communications. “More than 73 million American's went to the Internet for health advice by 2003” said Jim Leavitt, MD. “I think these patients would welcome the opportunity to obtain better outcomes through automated service and enhanced treatment compliance.”