MOBILE, Ala. – USA Health Providence Hospital has been recognized by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama with a Blue Distinction® Centers for Bariatric Surgery designation, part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program.

Blue Distinction Centers are nationally designated healthcare facilities that show a commitment to delivering high quality patient safety and better health outcomes, based on objective measures that were developed with input from the medical community and leading accreditation and quality organizations.

“The Blue Distinction designation affirms our strong commitment to providing high quality bariatric surgical care,” said Rick Metzger, MMHC, BSN, interim CEO for Providence Hospital. “This is good news for Providence and good news for our community.”

The Blue Distinction Centers for Bariatric Surgery program provides a full range of bariatric surgery care, including surgical care, post-operative care, outpatient follow-up care, and patient education.

To receive a Blue Distinction Centers for Bariatric Surgery designation, a healthcare facility must demonstrate that it meets many specific patient quality and safety metrics. Primarily, a program must be able to show that it is providing effective bariatric surgical procedures (sleeve gastrectomy and roux en y gastric bypass) with a very low complication and readmission rate.

“We are continually striving for excellence as we care for patients suffering with obesity,” said Danuel Laan, M.D., FACS, FASMBS, director of metabolic and bariatric surgery at Providence Hospital. “This designation shows that we are making the needs of our patients our top priority.”

Bariatric surgeries are among the most common elective surgeries in the U.S. — with more than 252,000 bariatric surgeries performed in 2018 based on a report from the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 43% of U.S. adults and 18.5% of youth are obese and are impacted by obesity-related health conditions. With obesity reaching epidemic levels among U.S. adults, a significant opportunity exists to improve quality care for bariatric surgeries within the national healthcare system.

Annual healthcare spending on obesity and obesity-related conditions is expected to rise by 2030, if the rate of obesity in the U.S. continues to climb. Bariatric surgery is the most effective treatment for severely obese patients because it allows for substantial, sustained weight loss, which leads to, improves, or resolves obesity-related co-morbidities like type 2 diabetes. On average, healthcare costs were reduced by 29% within five years following bariatric surgery, due to the reduction or elimination of obesity-related conditions, based on findings by ASMBS.

In 2023, Providence earned accreditation as a Comprehensive Center by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program, a joint quality program of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.