Choosing the Right Weight Loss Surgery Program
Choosing a weight loss surgery program is an important decision. The program you choose can impact your results after surgery, so care should be taken, and research should be done, to ensure that you are making a good choice.
What is a Weight Loss Surgery Program?
A weight loss surgery program consists of a bariatric surgeon and the patient care delivered before, during, and after surgery. Both elements, the surgeon and how patients are cared for, are important and contribute to the ultimate patient outcome.
Bariatric Surgeon
Quality surgery requires a qualified, experienced, and proven surgeon. With quality surgery comes low complication rates and better weight loss results.
It is clear from the published medical literature that outcomes after weight loss surgery are highly variable between different surgeons and programs. Like with anything else, some surgeons do an excellent job, some do an OK job, and some do a poor job. Because your health and happiness are at stake, choose a surgeon who does an excellent job.
Important things to look for in a bariatric surgeon include board certification in General Surgery, membership in the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeon (ASMBS), and designation as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence (BSCOE) surgeon.
Most importantly look for experience and a record of good surgical outcomes - low complication rates and good weight loss outcomes.
Patient Care
Ultimately, weight loss success after surgery is determined by how a patient uses the operation. Because of this, how patients are educated, supported, and managed is vitally important. Think of a weight loss operation like a musical instrument - to work well it requires instruction and practice.
Effective patient care is what weight loss surgery programs most commonly lack. Frequently the overwhelming focus is on doing the operations and not on expending the time and energy to help patients to be successful after the operations.
Look for a program that prioritizes your weight loss success and not only doing your operation. When your success is a priority, there will be more focus on follow-up, education, and support. When doing your operation is the priority, there will be more focus on "selling" you the operation.
Look for a program that has a record of successful weight loss outcomes. If a program does not have good weight loss outcomes, or cannot tell you what their weight loss outcomes are, your weight loss success is not the priority.
