Wide Variation in Complication Rates for Bariatric Surgery

In-hospital complication rates for bariatric surgery patients vary widely among U.S. hospitals, says a study released Monday by the health-care ratings company HealthGrades.

Bariatric surgery is also known as gastric-bypass surgery, weight-loss surgery, or obesity surgery.

The analysis of 86,520 bariatric surgeries performed in 17 states from 2002 through 2004 concluded that a patient in a five-star rated hospital would, on average, be 66 percent less likely to suffer one or more major complications -- such as bleeding and respiratory and cardiac problems -- than a patient in a one-star rated hospital.

The study also found that:

Hospitals that do more bariatric surgeries have better quality. Hospitals that received a five-star HealthGrades rating for bariatric surgery did, on average, twice the number of bariatric procedures during the three-year study compared to hospitals with a one-star rating.
Hospital stays were shorter for patients at hospitals with high-quality programs. The average hospital stay was 21 percent shorter for patients at five-star hospitals, compared to the national average.
If all hospitals performed at the same level as five-star hospitals, 3,297 of the 86,520 patients studied could have potentially avoided one or more major in-hospital complications.
The average death rate for bariatric surgery was 0.19 percent (two patients per 1,000).
"It is predicted that more than 200,000 bariatric surgeries will be performed in 2006, but this study shows very clearly that not all hospitals perform this procedure with the same level of quality," Dr. Samantha Collier, HealthGrades senior vice president of medical affairs, said in a prepared statement

wow, you'd be wanting one of the five star hospitals then following what they shared here!