The Atlanta General and Bariatric Surgery Center has announced that its surgery services for severe obesity or related conditions are now nationally accredited and meet the highest standards for patient safety and quality of preoperative and postoperative care in the greater Atlanta region.
Christopher Hart, M.D., the center’s metabolic and bariatric surgery director, recently announced the accreditation as a Comprehensive Center under the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP).
“This important designation affirms the outstanding care and services provided at Atlanta General & Bariatric Ambulatory Surgery Center, and that we are providing our patients with the necessary comprehensive care and support services required to help them achieve their weight-loss goals and maintain their health and well-being,” Hart said in a press release.
“The goal of our program has always been to provide patients with complete and comprehensive services to not only lose weight, but also make a lifestyle change to keep the weight off. The entire bariatric surgery team should be commended for their team effort and attention to detail along with the quality and compassionate care that they provide to each patient, which is truly changing lives every day.”
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in the U.S. alone nearly 15.5 million — and counting — people suffer from severe obesity. Typically it’s the associated diseases that increase severely obese patients’ risks of morbidity and mortality, such as type II diabetes, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease, among others.
Metabolic and bariatric surgical procedures have been shown to effectively reduce these obesity-associated conditions. Now the American College of Surgeons (ACS), working with the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), has expanded its quality program for bariatric surgery centers so that bariatric patients can be assisted in their search for a center that can provide optimal surgical care.
Atlanta General and Bariatric Surgery Center is committed to begin quality care with properly trained staff and leading surgeons who actively participate in meetings during the year to review the procedures’ outcomes. At the center, improvement to enhance the structure, process, and outcomes is sought continuously.
MBSAQIP is a joint initiative of the ACS and the ASMBS. The accreditation program’s standards — outlined in the Resources for Optimal Care of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Patient 2014 – ensure that patients who undergo bariatric surgery have full access to a multidisciplinary program, not just a medical procedure, which is designed to improve their outcomes and long-term success.
The MBSAQIP designation took into consideration the Atlanta Center’s participation in a national data registry that collects semiannual reports on the quality of its processes and outcomes, helping staff to identify opportunities and achieve continuous quality improvement.
“We are proud of our outstanding outcomes and quality in bariatric medicine. Accreditation is an important way for patients to verify that a practice has access to all the key resources necessary for optimal care,” said Christy Lee, AGBASC’s administrator of bariatric surgery. “As bariatric specialists, we are committed to thorough preparation and lifelong follow-up care for our patients, which maximizes the benefits of surgery and the patients’ chances for success.”
