Hospitals Pursue Bariatric Surgery Despite Risks
Hospitals across the country are attempting to start up lucrative bariatric-surgery practices, but are finding that the bariatric patients suffer from far more postoperative complications than normal patients, according to Modern Healthcare, a magazine aimed at healthcare executives.
Over 1,600 hospitals across the country perform some form of bariatric surgery. Obesity-related surgery brought in over $4 billion for hospitals in 2004, up from $263 million in 1997. No law requires that surgeons receive bariatric training before performing the operation.
Meanwhile, several bariatric-surgery patients in Lexington, Kentucky, are suing St. Joseph East Hospital. They say they were drawn in by a free seminar at the hospital, where they saw a promotional video about the procedure and heard from surgeons and former patients. The risks and complications of the surgery were downplayed.
According to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the procedure, overall, has a 2% mortality rate after one month. And patients of surgeons who performed fewer bariatric surgeries were significantly more likely to die from complications.
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