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Delivering Personalized Cancer Treatment in Jacksonville, Florida
For 35 years, Ackerman Cancer Center (ACC) has been at the forefront of radiation oncology. The independent group leads the way not just with innovative treatments but by coordinating with other local healthcare providers to offer comprehensive care. This refreshing approach is a source of pride for practice founder Scot Ackerman, MD, FACR.
“We’re not tied down to working with just one group of physicians,” Dr. Ackerman explains. “When we see a patient who has just been diagnosed with a certain kind of cancer, we can identify the other practitioners who are best suited for that patient and their diagnosis, and provide the appropriate expertise for them.”
This flexibility results in tailored treatment plans based on each patient’s needs rather than a prescriptive model often found in large hospital settings. “We like bringing patients in and giving them all the options, helping them make a choice,” says Jaymeson Stroud, MD, an oncologist at ACC. “It’s really their treatment choices, their body.”
The Challenge: Balancing Advanced Care with Administrative Demands
With four locations and 10 clinicians, ACC is the first private practice in the world to offer proton beam radiation therapy, a more targeted treatment that minimizes damage to surrounding healthy tissues and has fewer side effects. The group employs physicists and dosimetrists to ensure therapy precision – and the physicians complement that meticulous work with warm, open, informative conversations with patients.
However, the practice found documentation demands getting in the way. Physicians were squeezing in time or extending their day just to chart patient encounters. It compromised the quality of patient visits and took up valuable clinical and personal time.
“At the end of the day, I’d sit down and try to remember everything I went through, try to match up my memory of different findings with the right patients,” Dr. Stroud recalls. “I was excited to explore any option to help me document... so I could spend more face-to-face time with the patient where I could be more present in the conversation and not trying to take notes.”
The Solution: Embracing Ambient AI for Oncology Documentation
Ackerman Cancer Center turned to DeepScribe as their ambient AI scribing solution in July 2023. It was a decision driven by the desire to improve both physician wellbeing and patient care.
“We physicians talked about what we could do to make our practice more efficient,” says Dr. Ackerman. “What could we do to have more face time with patients and spend less time charting? We began looking for an AI solution and contacted the DeepScribe people.”
A DeepScribe team traveled to Jacksonville to meet with Dr. Ackerman and his staff, learning and analyzing their radiation oncology documentation needs. “I was very impressed,” says Dr. Ackerman. “The team consisted of former scribes and technology experts, and it all kind of merged together. I thought that was very novel.”
With a focus on the intricacies of specialty care, DeepScribe has trained a custom AI model to understand and respond to the oncology workflow - this includes ongoing collaboration with oncologists. As ACC discovered, the DeepScribe AI-generated notes automatically captured oncological terminology and even names of referring physicians.
“I was reading a note the other day that was much more eloquent than I would have been,” laughs Dr. Stroud.
Results: Improved Efficiency and Patient Engagement
After years of dreading each day’s pile of charts, ACC clinicians could breathe easier.
“DeepScribe has allowed me at the end of the day to take a quick minute to wrap up,” says Dr. Stroud. “I look at all my DeepScribe notes, sign off on them, and I’m done. And those notes are ready to go out to physicians the same day.”
Now, every ACC clinician uses DeepScribe, for just about 100% of all visits.
Benefits of Bringing DeepScribe to Ackerman Cancer Center
Time Savings
Dr. Ackerman saves about an hour each day on documentation, which he uses to “spend more time with my physics and dosimetry staff, to work on calculating radiation plans properly for patients.” Notes are typically ready for review within minutes after a patient visit.
Enhanced Patient Interaction
ACC physicians can focus more on patient conversations and education. As Dr. Stroud details, “It allows me to answer questions with more of a personable type of bedside manner.”
Improved Note Quality
Because DeepScribe ambient AI understands the language and workflow of cancer care, notes capture more comprehensive information.
Greater Billing Opportunities
A finer capture of clinical details translates to higher levels of reimbursement.
From Dr. Ackerman: “In the past, I hadn’t been documenting the complexity of a visit because of time. We’d get short-changed because if it’s not documented, we can’t bill for it. Now, it’s all there and we can bill for it appropriately.”
Supporting a New Standard in Oncology Care
The partnership between Ackerman Cancer Center and DeepScribe reflects a shared vision to improve patient care by leveraging technology. ACC takes that approach in terms of innovative treatments and now has oncology-specific AI scribing playing a significant role in that vision.
“My documentation is better, our billing is better, and the patient experience is better,” says Dr. Ackerman. “And finally, my quality of life is better as well.”
