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Measuring Quality of Care at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Loss

The Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Loss provides a complete range of medical and surgical treatment services for adults and adolescents ranging from the overweight to the morbidly obese. Center physicians thoroughly evaluate each patient and provide the individualized care that is crucial to effective and long-lasting treatment success. This unique, comprehensive program addresses the medical, behavioral, nutritional, and, if necessary, the surgical and plastic surgical issues related to obesity.

Our program is accredited as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American College of Surgeons. Please see the American College of Surgeons' website for more information.

Quality of Care Measures for Bariatric Surgery Patients at Cedars-Sinai

The number of procedures done at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Loss is monitored because studies have demonstrated that physicians and hospitals that regularly perform a particular procedure tend to have better outcomes than those that perform the procedures less frequently.

The table below reflects data on patients who underwent gastric bypass or adjustable gastric band surgical procedures to treat obesity.*

To measure the quality of care given to patients having this procedure, the Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Loss monitors:

  • The total number of procedures done

  • The average length of stay (ALOS) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for patients having the procedure. This refers to the average number of days a patient stays at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after being admitted. The goal is to ensure that all patients are appropriately treated in the hospital for their respective conditions, and are not hospitalized longer than necessary.

    (The expected length of stay shown in the chart below is based on risk-adjusted data collected by the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC).** The Cedars-Sinai average length of stay is shorter than expected.

  • Mortality, or the number of deaths that may have occurred due to the surgery

Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Loss Center of Excellence 2008 Data Total Procedures Average Length of Stay Expected Length of Stay Mortality
Surgical procedures to treat obesity without complications or co-morbidities 576 1.51 days 2.08 days 00.0%

Source: UHC Clinical Data Base, patients discharged with DRG 621 between January 2008 and December 2008.

Results for Patients in the Cedars-Sinai 12-Week Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program

The Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Loss follows patients during their medically supervised weight loss program. At 12 weeks into the program, patients still in the program between January and December 2008 achieved the results below:

Results for Patients in the 12-Week Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Loss (Jan-Dec 2008) Outcome
Average weight loss 24.3 pounds (a range of 4 to 60 pounds)
Percentage of patients who lost 10% or more of their body weight*** 30%
Patients who achieved a Body Mass Index (BMI) of <30 20 pounds
Patients who achieved a BMI of 30 to 34.9 25 pounds
Patients who achieved a BMI of >35 25 pounds

* MS-DRG 621 O.R. Procedures for obesity without co-morbidities, complications or major co-moribidities or complications (CC/MCC)

** The UHC is an alliance of 103 academic medical centers and 206 of their affiliated hospitals representing approximately 90% of the nation's non-profit academic medical centers; most of these facilities participate in the Clinical DataBase/Resource Manager.

*** A weight loss of 10% or greater among the obese population is associated with an improvement in health status. (Peppard et al. JAMA 2000; 284:3015. Eliassen. JAMA 2006; 296(2):193-201)