"Welcome to the website of Cartersville Ob/Gyn Associates, leaders in women's healthcare since 1984 and founders of the award-winning Georgia Advanced Surgery Center for Women (GASC) -- the state's first and only fully accredited surgical facility for performing all major and minor gynecological surgery in a true outpatient setting.

The GASC website is currently being updated. For immediate information, or to schedule a free surgical consultation, please call the GASC at 678-605-9399. Thank you.

The Georgia Advanced Surgery Center for Women (GASC) - Georgia's first fully accredited surgical center for performing all major and minor gynecological surgeries in a true outpatient setting - has officially opened. The state-of-the-art facility specializes in laparoscopic and other highly advanced, minimally invasive surgical techniques that spare women costly hospitalization, unsightly incisions and lengthy recoveries for hysterectomies, incontinence procedures and numerous other surgeries. It also is among only a few facilities in the country qualifying for "Center of Excellence" designation by the certification division of the American Association of Gynecological Laparoscopists (AAGL), the surgical specialty's premier standards-setting organization.

"This facility provides women the highest level of gynecological treatment available today - plus a proven, convenient and cost-effective alternative to hospital-based care," said Hugo Ribot Jr., M.D., founder and medical director of the GASC. "Even our patients undergoing the most comprehensive procedures safely return home the same day as surgery," he added, "with far faster, less painful recoveries than traditional surgery provides. Women who have total hysterectomies here, for example, can resume most activities within a week - versus six to eight weeks with open abdominal surgery."

Ribot said that the outstanding patient safety, results and satisfaction with the GASC's special outpatient protocol have been proven in a major study presented in 2008 to the AAGL and published that year in The Journal of Minimally Invasive Surgery - as well as by thousands of such surgeries performed over the past two decades by Ribot's practice, Cartersville Ob/Gyn Associates.

The GASC is located within the same medical building as Cartersville Ob/Gyn Associates, and co-owned by practice partner Malcolm Barfield, D.O. In addition to the latest surgical equipment, the facility features leading-edge video and webcast technology for training surgeons. It is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, plus has Medicare and Medicaid certification, and contracts with third-party payers.

"We uniquely provide the most modern surgical care within the most cost-effective surgical environment," said Barfield, "which benefits women, employers and insurance providers alike."

Ribot and Barfield are Emory-trained, board certified Ob/Gyns specializing in advanced laparoscopy. The GASC is among many innovations in they have introduced in Georgia.