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Mary Washington Hospital is closing its weight-loss surgery program Date published: 12/5/2008
BY JIM HALL Mary Washington Hospital will end its troubled weight-loss surgery program at the end of the month. About 180 patients will be affected by the shut-down. This includes 60 patients who have already had their surgeries and are participating in a follow-up program. Another 120 patients were doing the preparations required for surgery and were scheduled to be operated on later this month or early next year. All of those surgeries have been canceled. Mary Washington is referring its patients to the Bluepoint Surgical Group, a private surgical practice based in Woodbridge. The Bluepoint surgeons do weight-loss surgeries at Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge and Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax. "We hope that every patient who started the program at Mary Washington can continue with our program," said Dr. Denis Halmi, medical director for the Bluepoint group. Patients were notified of the collapse of the Mary Washington program by phone beginning last week. Hospital employees learned about it this week. "It's a lot of uncertainty," said one patient yesterday. That patient, who asked not to be identified, said she had "lap-band" surgery and was awaiting her first adjustment to the band. Lap-band patients have a silicone ring surgically inserted at the top of their stomachs. They must return to their surgeons every few months for adjustment of the band. The patient said she doesn't know what she will do now. "When I first heard, I was scared. I felt betrayed," she said. This is the second time that Mary Washington has started and stopped a bariatric surgery program. The hospital also operated a program for about nine months in 2002-2003. This time hospital officials spent about three years designing a comprehensive program that included pre-surgical testing and counseling and post-surgical record keeping and follow-up. Surgeries restarted last year. Officials promised that the program would become a "center of excellence," as defined either by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery or the American College of Surgeons. Some insurance plans, such as Medicare, require that patients have their surgeries done at a certified center. One feature of these centers is that they host a certain minimum number of surgeries. Mary Washington officials predicted that the two surgeons they employed, Dr. Victor Stelmack and Dr. Brian Mirza, would do enough surgeries that the program would eventually qualify for certification. But the program suffered when other programs, including the Bluepoint program in Woodbridge, drew patients from the Fredericksburg area. When Mirza departed the hospital in June, he was not replaced. "The program just hasn't got the necessary volume that we needed in order to get critical things like our certifications," said Walt Kiwall, executive vice president and chief operating officer for MediCorp Health System, parent company of Mary Washington, yesterday. Kiwall said that the hospital will work with Stelmack to help him set up a general surgery practice. Stelmack could not be reached for comment yesterday. The six people who work in the program will be offered jobs elsewhere in MediCorp, Kiwall said. Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 12/5/2008
Weight control is very difficult. I have a dietitian friend who says diets never work, they cause you to yoyo and binge, but behavior modification does. Two tricks I use to maintain control. First look at your dinner plates. Truly it’s a visual thing, eat your dinner from a salad plate, you are less likely to heap on more than you need. Eating a lot at night is not good. Second get rid of your cable TV. W/o TV you’ll find more physical things to do than sit and munch, and you won’t even miss it! I don’t.
Weight loss is directly associated with the physical fitness. Effective weight loss surgery procedures play an important role in fastest overweight reduction. Proficient surgeons are committed to foster the physical fitness of the overweight sufferers. Lap band surgery offers quickest weight reduction.
http://www.weightlosstreatments.net/
but, until you LOSE weight, you LOOSEN your belt.
Most people who need this operation have an insurance plan that won't cover this operation, So the volume would be less because for many who do need it, it becomes out of reach for them. There is no shortage of people who do legitimately need the operation. Many insurance plans if they do cover it offer a weak follow up if any . People who don't need the surgery are not able to understand the people who do. That includes insurance companies. Maybe they should start to try.
I think it is most sad. I had a full distal at Fair Oaks Hospital in 2000, I'd be dead if I didn't have the operation. I had many friends in this area that were considering the operation. All I can say is that Potomac and Fair Oaks have this program in full swing and perhaps people who need this operations should consider going there instead. BTW I am doing wonderful almost 9 years later!
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