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Quality in Bariatric Surgery

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The ASMBS Textbook of Bariatric Surgery

Abstract

The movement to reduce variation in outcomes of surgical procedures has become a critical component of the efforts to improve the value of healthcare. Throughout the history of surgical intervention, surgeons have been keenly interested in improving patient safety, and in almost every surgical field improvements have been made. Metabolic and bariatric surgeons, criticized for offering operations to patients who suffer from the “lifestyle” disease of obesity, have by necessity embraced accreditation as a pathway to provide a structure of programmed longitudinal care. Collecting data, reporting of outcomes, and using outcomes for improvement within the structure of accreditation serve to garner the support of hospitals, staff, and colleagues for these efforts and provide an economic context for the inclusion of integrated health staff in the longitudinal pathway of care. In the history of surgery, there may not have been a more focused or successful effort, resulting in a reduction of mortality from 0.5 % (1/200) patients in 2004 to 0.06 % (1/1750) patents in 2013 in programs doing more than 50 laparoscopic stapled cases in accredited centers.

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Correspondence to Robin P. Blackstone MD, FACS, FASMBS .

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Blackstone, R.P. (2015). Quality in Bariatric Surgery. In: Nguyen, N., Blackstone, R., Morton, J., Ponce, J., Rosenthal, R. (eds) The ASMBS Textbook of Bariatric Surgery. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1206-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1206-3_14

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