Introduction: Surgery is currently the only effective long-term therapy for morbid obesity and its complications. A variety of surgical procedures can now offer durable and safe weight control as well as previously unrealized full remission of costly co-morbidities. This is a preliminary investigation of patient outcomes at Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence (BSCOE) Hospitals.
Methods and Procedures:
Data was analyzed from 235 SRC BSCOE Hospitals receiving Full Approval status from August 2005 to May 2007. Bariatric Surgery metrics for patients treated at these hospitals (n = 81,100) included types and volume of various bariatric surgical procedures performed at each hospital, patient demographics, payer information, and 90-day patient outcomes. The data was analyzed using both univariate and bivariate analysis.
Results: Composite aggregate data from these analyses demonstrate significant trends in terms of surgical procedure preferences (laparoscopic bypass 61%), patient (females 83%, Caucasian 60%, average age 43 years) and payer demographics (private insurance 78%), and 90-day outcomes (readmission 5%, re-operation 2.5%, mortality 0.36%).
Conclusions: The collective performance of SRC BSCOE hospitals in bariatric benchmarks of re-admissions, re-operations, and mortality are equivalent or superior to currently reported values and may establish an industry standard for optimum bariatric surgical care and patient outcomes.
Session: Podium Presentation
Program Number: S007