Salem, Mass. – 
North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) is proud to announce its designation as an official Bariatric Surgery Center (Level 2A) by the Bariatric Surgery Center Network Accreditation Program of the American College of Surgeons. With this special designation, NSMC joins an elite group of hospitals in Massachusetts that have been recognized for the delivery of a superior level of quality and care to bariatric surgical patients.
To date, North Shore Medical Center has completed nearly 600 bariatric surgical procedures, offering the regions largest weight loss surgery program. It offers patients several weight loss procedures including gastric bypass and gastric banding. In addition to surgical treatment, individual counseling, group nutrition and lifestyle education, as well as supervised exercise and cardiovascular risk reduction, are tailored to individual patient's needs. There are monthly information sessions and an ongoing post-operative support group.
“The results have been gratifying, and the quality of life for these patients has improved dramatically,” said Frederick Buckley, Jr., M.D., FACS, a NSMC general surgeon who specializes in bariatric surgery.
Through NSMC’s Surgical Weight Management Program, the average weight loss is 119 pounds two to three years post-surgery, and 96 percent of patients with diabetes have been able to discontinue medication after bariatric surgery. In addition, 76 percent of patients with hypertension have discontinued their medication, 68 percent have gone from being completely sedentary to exercising three to four times a week, and 67 percent of patients report improved quality of life within one year of their bariatric procedure.
According to the American College of Surgeons, more than 11 million people suffer from severe obesity, which significantly increases the risks of morbidity and mortality because of its link to diseases like type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, sleep apnea, gallbladder disease, fatty liver, osteoarthritis, and some forms of cancer.
The American College of Surgeons’ Bariatric Surgery Center Network Accreditation Program was established in 2005 to improve quality and facilitate access to care for obese patients. The ACS acknowledges, as Bariatric Centers, those facilities which implement and maintain defined standards of practice, certain physical resources, necessary human resources, documentation of patient outcomes, and the safe and timely introduction of new knowledge and technology into the standard of care. The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical education and practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. Its achievements have placed it at the forefront of American surgery and have made the College an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 72,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.
