UCI Health earns Blue Distinction Center designation for bariatric surgery services
October 09, 2021
UCI Health is pleased to announce that its bariatric surgery services program has earned a renewed designation as a Blue Distinction Center for bariatric surgery.
The Blue Distinction Center designation is awarded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association to those bariatric surgery centers with a proven track record for delivering better results, including fewer complications and readmissions, than other providers. UCI Health has held this distinction since 2015.
Blue Distinction Centers and Blue Distinction Centers for Bariatric Surgery provide a full range of bariatric surgery care; including surgical care, post-operative care, outpatient follow-up care and patient education. These Centers have lower complication rates and fewer readmissions.
It also means that the UCI Health team provides a full range of bariatric options, including patient assessment, treatment planning, complex inpatient care and major surgical treatments for adults — all delivered by teams with distinguished expertise and subspecialty training in bariatric surgery and digestive disease health.
The board-certified UCI Health bariatric surgeons offer a variety of procedures to help patients achieve their weight-loss goals and specializes in the following procedures:
During and after weight loss, the UCI Health team works with the patient to ensure their health and comfort, including body contouring to remove excess skin.
For patients have had a weight-loss procedure performed elsewhere, UCI Health also specializes in revisions of prior weight-loss surgery. Patients sometimes may need a second surgery because of poor weight loss, regained weight or complications from the original surgery.
To become a Blue Distinction Center (BDC), a provider must meet overall quality measures for patient safety and outcomes, developed with input from the medical community. To become a Blue Distinction Center, a provider also meets cost measures that address consumers’ need for affordable healthcare. Individual outcomes may vary. National criteria are displayed on www.bcbs.com.
Since 2010, the UCI Health Bariatric Surgery program has been accredited by the American College of Surgeons’ Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program the gold standard for assessing quality in surgical services.
UCI Health is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine, and the only academic health system in Orange County. Patients can access UCI Health at primary and specialty care offices across Orange County and at its main campus, UCI Medical Center in Orange, Calif. The 459-bed, acute care hospital, listed among America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 21 consecutive years, provides tertiary and quaternary care, ambulatory and specialty medical clinics, behavioral health and rehabilitation services. UCI Medical Center is home to Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.