Overlake Medical Center & Clinics Named Top 10% in Nation for Bariatric Surgery

Overlake Medical Center & Clinics today announced it is among the top 10% in the nation for bariatric surgery and a recipient of the 2022 Bariatric Surgery Excellence Award according to new analysis by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems. Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 31 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions.*

Healthgrades Specialty Excellence Awards recognize hospitals with superior performance in specific specialty lines and specialty focus areas. Overlake is the only hospital in Washington state to receive this prestigious award.

“We want to provide information to make finding a healthcare specialist an easier experience for consumers. Patients can feel confident knowing that hospitals that are recognized for their performance in bariatric surgery to provide high-quality care and superior outcomes,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Data Science, Healthgrades.

“Weight loss surgery is still the best tool for improving health and quality of life for our bariatric patients,” said Thien Nguyen, MD, Director of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery at Overlake Medical Center. “Because the dangers of obesity grow over decades but is low in the first few years, surgery has to be even safer than not having surgery at all. At Overlake Medical Center & Clinics, we offer this life-saving surgery while having the best patient safety in the state and in the nation. We are Washington's only five star-rated facility for bariatric surgery and top 10% bariatric program nationally, according to Healthgrades.”

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 31 common conditions and procedures and evaluated outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 16 states. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as five star (statistically significantly better than expected), three star (not statistically different from expected), and one star (statistically significantly worse than expected).

* Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2018 through 2020 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only. For appendectomy and bariatric surgery, Healthgrades used inpatient data from 16 states that provide all-payer data for years 2017 through 2019. Due to the highly variable impact of the pandemic on hospital outcomes, Healthgrades made the decision to exclude cases with a COVID-19 diagnosis from the 2020 data in order to preserve the statistical integrity of our models and fairly evaluate clinical outcomes at all hospitals. To view the complete methodology, please visit: healthgrades.com/quality/ratings-awards/methodology