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Treating digestive health issues, Capital Digestive Care is focused on positive patient experiences. In-house laboratory services are an essential part of Capital Digestive Care’s comprehensive care. Partnered with Orchard Software for their laboratory information system (LIS), Capital Digestive Care is focused on diagnosing and treating a wide range of digestive health conditions.

Photo of Capital Digestive Care Laboratory facilityProviding Gastrointestinal Care Across Mid-Atlantic States

Established in January 2009, Capital Digestive Care has more than 20 office locations and outpatient surgery centers and more than 160 physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. They are the largest gastroenterology group in the Mid-Atlantic states, treating patients for all types of gastrointestinal conditions. Capital Digestive Care treats more than 200,000 patients annually and has impressive patient satisfaction scores, speaking to their focus on better care and positive patient experience.

Capital Digestive Care Lab Provides Expedited Care & Specialized Expertise

Capital Digestive Care’s laboratory, located in Silver Spring, Maryland, is part of their comprehensive care model, offering in-house laboratory services as a key part of their integrated gastrointestinal health network. Diagnostic testing includes anatomic pathology, clinical diagnostic services, and molecular diagnostics, plus several at-home testing kits with pickup and delivery services.

Outside photo of Capital Digestive Care LaboratoryThe laboratory performs more than 500,000 tests each year with 99% of test results reported in less than 48 hours. They process more than 124,000 clinical tests and 74,000 anatomic pathology cases every year and are using digital pathology. The laboratory is also involved in developing innovative clinical trials around emerging treatment alternatives.

Partnered with Orchard for Innovation & Growth

Graphic showing a quote from Becky Cushing, Senior Director of Laboratory Informatics at Capital Digestive Care, saying, "One thing that I really appreciate about Orchard is the people. We have developed great relationships with the people we work with at Orchard, which provides a very customized human touch. We aren’t just put into a queue and shuffled around. It’s very personalized."The Capital Digestive Care laboratory replaced their homegrown LIS with Orchard® Harvest™ LIS and Orchard® Outreach™ in 2021 to gain interfacing and outreach capabilities. They recently shifted their solution to a cloud based AWS environment for added security. To continue growing and meeting their patient needs, they are in the process of moving to Orchard® Enterprise Lab™ LIS.

What Becky Cushing, Senior Director of Laboratory Informatics, appreciates most about working with Orchard is the personal attention, teamwork approach, and Orchard’s knowledgeable staff.

Superior Experience with Orchard Support & Training

Cushing reports good experiences with both Orchard technical support and training, explaining that the relationship is more of a partnership than a vendor client relationship. “Support is fantastic—the resources and the ticketing system. I have regular calls with our customer advocate to make sure that everything is going smoothly,” Cushing said.

Graphic showing a quote from Becky Cushing, Senior Director of Laboratory Informatics at Capital Digestive Care, saying, "The training that’s offered is fantastic. I appreciate the ability to do the interfacing myself. I’ve worked with several other LIS systems, but I have not come across any others that provide integration training and allow customers to manage and set up their own interfaces. Orchard is willing to make that investment in the individual, grow that partnership, and provide that high level of training."

Graphic showing a quote from Becky Cushing, Senior Director of Laboratory Informatics at Capital Digestive Care, saying, "The flexibility [of Orchard’s LIS] is just fantastic from a business standpoint; it allows us to really be a player in the market, to move forward and create efficiencies."Autonomy & Training to Manage Interfaces

Cushing took part in Orchard Software’s integration training, designed to teach customers how to configure and manage their Orchard Enterprise interfaces. She has benefited from the advanced trainings that Orchard offers and is comfortable building Capital Digestive Care’s HL7 interfaces, saving the organization significant time and cost.

Because of the integration and other training, Cushing has a deep understanding of how the lab’s LIS works and can use that knowledge to maximize its use. Being able to set up new client interfaces is beneficial for Capital Digestive Care’s clients as well, making interfaces to client EMRs faster and easier, with Orchard support available when it is needed. Orchard’s ability to integrate with other systems, its flexibility and configurability alleviates any concerns about working with new and old client systems. “Having an intimate knowledge of our system and being able to modify and manage it at a very detailed level is a value to our organization,” Cushing said.

Digital Pathology Progression & Continued Innovation

Being progressive, Capital Digestive Care laboratory is using digital pathology and looking forward to having that system integrated with Orchard’s solution as well. They are also focused on continual process improvements and keeping their system up to date. Upgrading to Orchard Enterprise Lab LIS will streamline workflow and prepare the lab for continued growth. Using the LIS to track key performance indicators like turnaround times ensures that the lab meets its goals.

Graphic showing a quote from Becky Cushing, Senior Director of Laboratory Informatics at Capital Digestive Care, saying, "I am truly grateful for the partnership, and I can’t emphasize enough the relationships and the level of support that we feel as a client using Orchard’s products. We have the ability to keep up with new technologies that we’re leveraging for our patient care."

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