Stony Brook Medicine Earns Highest Level of Bariatric Surgery Accreditation
Hospital Now Authorized To Treat the Most Complex Bariatric Patients
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Stony Brook Bariatric team – Seated from left, Catherine Tuppo, PT, bariatric coordinator; Aurora Pryor, MD, director, bariatric surgery; and Dana Telem, MD, associate director, bariatric surgery. Standing from left, Kaitlyn Roggemann, database manager; Christine Erickson, bariatric administrator; Kartik Gohil, MBBS, bariatric fellow; Kathryn Cottell, RD, dietitian; Darragh Herlihy, NP, bariatric nurse practitioner; Maria Altieri, MD, research fellow; Genna Hymowitz, PhD, psychologist; Renee Browning Goss, pre-certification specialist; Jennifer Rosenstein, RN, clinical nurse specialist; and Donna Hoffman, RN, nurse manager. |
STONY BROOK, NY, May 15, 2014 — Stony Brook Medicine was granted full accreditation as a comprehensive bariatric facility by the new Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP) of the American College of Surgeons and American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. This accreditation demonstrates the Bariatric and Metabolic Weight Loss Center’s commitment to delivering the highest-quality care for bariatric surgery patients.
“We are very pleased to receive accreditation from the American College of Surgeons,” says Aurora D. Pryor, MD, professor of surgery, and director of the Stony Brook Bariatric and Metabolic Weight Loss Center. “They were very impressed with our entire staff and the Stony Brook facilities. Our group should be commended for their team effort and attention to detail as acknowledged by the surveyor.”
To earn this accreditation, Stony Brook University Hospital met the essential criteria that ensure its ability to support a bariatric surgical care program and measure up to the institutional performance requirements outlined by the MBSAQIP accreditation standards.
Accredited bariatric surgery centers provide both the hospital resources necessary for optimal care of morbidly obese patients and the support and resources necessary to address the entire spectrum of care and needs of bariatric patients, both pre- and post-operatively.
Dr. Pryor emphasizes, “Accreditation is an important way for patients to verify that a practice has access to all the key resources necessary for optimal care, and we are proud to be acknowledged here for our excellence at Stony Brook Medicine.”
MBSAQIP is administered by the American College of Surgeons. In 2012, the college and the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery announced plans to combine their respective national bariatric surgery accreditation programs into a single unified program to achieve one national accreditation standard for bariatric surgery centers. This joint effort resulted in MBSAQIP, which is designed to achieve a single national accreditation standard for all bariatric surgery programs.
The MBSAQIP accreditation is awarded in categories, each with its own criteria that must be met. Facilities undergo a site visit by an experienced bariatric surgeon, who reviews the facilities’ structure, process, and data quality. Because optimal surgical care requires documentation using reliable outcomes measures, accredited bariatric surgery centers are required to report their outcomes data to the MBSAQIP Data Registry Platform.
In the United States, more than 15 million people suffer from severe obesity, 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 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, among other health risks. At present, weight loss surgery provides the only effective, lasting relief from severe obesity.
Therefore, the American College of Surgeons believes it is of utmost importance to extend its quality initiatives to accrediting bariatric surgery centers so that it can assist the public in identifying those facilities that provide optimal surgical care for patients who undergo this surgical procedure.
The American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery encourages its members to investigate and discover new advances in metabolic and bariatric surgery while maintaining a steady exchange of experiences and ideas that may lead to improved surgical outcomes for morbidly obese patients. It should be noted that Dr. Pryor is a leader in the society, and will serve as program chair of its 2015 national meeting.
About Stony Brook University Hospital:
Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) is Long Island’s premier academic medical center. With 603 beds, SBUH serves as the region’s only tertiary care center and Level 1 Trauma Center, and is home to the Stony Brook Heart Institute, Stony Brook Cancer Center, Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital, Stony Brook Neurosciences Institute, and Stony Brook Digestive Disorders Institute. SBUH also encompasses Suffolk County’s only Level 4 Regional Perinatal Center, state-designated AIDS Center, state-designated Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, state-designated Burn Center, the Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence, and Kidney Transplant Center. It is home of the nation’s first Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. To learn more, visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu.
