Surgical Weight Loss Quality Data

The surgery volumes at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center exceed those required for national accreditation.

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Northern Light Surgical Weight Loss has been accredited by the Unified Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Initiatives Program (MBSAQIP) of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Accredited surgical weight loss programs meet very high program standards, have established track records on patient safety, and consistently deliver quality care. In 2005, Northern Light Surgical Weight Loss was the first bariatric program in Maine to receive accreditation and has maintained accreditation since that time. 

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Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center offers gastric bypass, adjustable gastric banding, and sleeve gastrectomy bariatric surgeries. All weight loss surgeries have been laparoscopic (minimally invasive) since 2009. In 2008, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center was the first hospital in the state to offer the sleeve gastrectomy, and now performs more sleeves than any other weight loss surgery.

Since Northern Light EasternMaine Medical Center began offering the laparoscopic approach to weight loss surgery in 2003, the average length of stay for these procedures has continued to decrease.

Starting in 2021, the protocol is to have patients discharged after one night in the hospital, bringing the length of stay down even further. This is discussed with surgeons and determined on a case by case basis. The current average length of stay for both gastric bypass and sleeve is 1.9 days and gastric band patients stay averages to less than a day as these patients usually go home the same day as their surgery.
 

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Operative mortality is 0%. The standard for safe accredited program is to be less than 0.2%.

Thirty-day readmission and reoperative rates remain well below the benchmark for accredited surgical weight loss programs.