Gastrointestinal Associates is committed to providing our patients with top quality medical care, whether you are coming in for an office visit or are a patient at one of our Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs). But how do you measure quality? 
Our physicians measure up. Every physician at GIA is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in both internal medicine and gastroenterology. We participate in continuing medical education programs annually to make sure we are on the cutting edge of gastrological procedures and technology. And each of our physicians is credentialed for active staff privileges in at least one area hospital.
Our care measures up. We have implemented quality assurance and performance improvement programs with measurable outcomes in both our practice and our endoscopic ASCs that allow us to continually monitor our care and make any necessary improvements. In the more than 20,000 procedures we performed last year, only 12 resulted in hospitalization, and none required surgery. In more than 13,000 colonoscopies last year, there were no perforated colons. We consistently outperform the national average in all quality measures.
Our staff measures up. An excellent staff is critical to providing quality care. Our highly trained and compassionate medical support staff makes sure your visit meets or exceeds your expectations. Our admissions staff provides patients with all the information they need for a successful appointment. They also make sure new patients are seen as soon as possible – typically within a week of a request – and that emergency patients are seen right away.
Our systems measure up. GIA is the only Knoxville GI practice with three licensed, certified and accredited endoscopic ambulatory surgery centers which allow us to perform procedures in a convenient, timely and cost-saving manner. We utilize electronic medical records and perform external chart and billing audits to ascertain proper documentation, coding and billing. And we are the only local practice to have a GI hospitalist ready to provide immediate response to GI hospital consultations and emergencies.
But who measures quality? Our patients do. We know we measure up because our patient satisfaction rating is excellent over 95 percent of the time. And that is the real test. Our goal at GIA is to continue to provide excellent quality of care that helps us achieve the highest levels of patient satisfaction because patients are our true test of quality.