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Dr. Jaime Cepeda, medical director of Bon Secours Community Hospital’s Surgical Weight Loss Institute, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, announced its bariatric surgical center has been accredited as a Comprehensive Center under the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program, a joint program of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
The accredited center offers preoperative and postoperative care designed specifically for their severely obese patients.
-“This award affirms our center’s commitment to quality patient care and the contributions of all hospital staff members in making the designation possible,” said Dr. Cepeda.
Bon Secours Community Hospital’s commitment to quality care begins with appropriately trained staff and the leadership team who participate in meetings throughout the year to review its outcomes. They seek continuous improvement to enhance the structure, process and outcomes of the center.
To earn the designation, Bon Secours Community Hospital met essential criteria for staffing, training and facility infrastructure and protocols for care, ensuring its ability to support patients with severe obesity. The center also participates in a national data registry that yields semiannual reports on the quality of its processes and outcomes, identifying opportunities for continuous quality improvement.
After submitting an application, centers seeking accreditation undergo an extensive site visit by an experienced bariatric surgeon, who reviews the center's structure, process and clinical outcomes data. Centers are awarded a specific designation depending on how many patients it serves annually, the type of procedures it provides and whether it provides care for patients under age 18.
Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla,, Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern and MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie also offer bariatric surgery.
In the United States, around 15.5 million people suffer from severe obesity, according to the National Institutes of Health, and the numbers continue to increase. Obesity increases the risks of morbidity and mortality because of the diseases and conditions that are commonly associated with it, such as type II diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, among other health risks.
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