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Characteristics of Hospitals Performing Bariatric Surgery
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To the Editor: Fueled by the high prevalence of morbid obesity, bariatric surgery centers are proliferating rapidly across the United States.1 Reports of serious complications and deaths have raised concerns that many hospitals perform too few bariatric procedures and lack the necessary staffing and facilities to perform these complex procedures safely.1 Some private insurers are selectively contracting with hospitals meeting "centers of excellence" criteria, which include minimum procedure volumes and specific requirements for staffing, services, and facilities. The American College of Surgeons2 and the American Society for Bariatric Surgery3 have initiated credentialing processes for hospitals offering bariatric surgery based on similar criteria.
Because of this, we examined trends in the numbers of patients undergoing bariatric surgery in high-volume and low-volume hospitals, as well as the size, staffing patterns, availability of specific services, and other characteristics of hospitals offering bariatric surgery relative to other US hospitals.
Methods
We analyzed data for 1997-2003 . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Nancy J. O. Birkmeyer, PhD
nbirkmey@umich.edu
Yongliang Wei, MS;
Aaron Goldfaden, MD;
John D. Birkmeyer, MD
Michigan Surgical Collaborative for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (M-SCORE)
Department of Surgery
University of Michigan Health System
Ann Arbor
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What's new in the other general journals
Tonks
BMJ 2006;332:225-226.
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