Dr. Jeffrey Lord

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Sacred Heart Hospital of Pensacola is ranked among the top five percent in the nation for bariatric surgery according to a new study issued by HealthGrades(r), the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. Based on this ranking, Sacred Heart Hospital is one of only 48 hospitals in the nation to receive the 2010/2011 Bariatric Surgery Excellence Award(tm) from HealthGrades.

"We are please that our remarkable weight loss surgery team has been recognized as among the best in the country," said Laura Kaiser, president and CEO of Sacred Heart Health System. "The collective effort of our Surgical Weight Loss team during the past five years has made it possible to achieve and maintain a very high level of care. These independent, comparative ratings are clear evidence that the team's dedication has meant better outcomes for the people who matter most - our patients."

Sacred Heart Hospital has been a recipient of the Bariatric Surgery Excellence Award(tm) for two years in a row and has been rated as five stars for overall bariatric surgery for three years in a row. Sacred Heart Hospital is the only facility in Pensacola-Tallahassee Region to rank in the top five percent and is also ranked #3 in the state of Florida for it bariatric surgery program.

The HealthGrades study found that patients undergoing bariatric surgery at hospitals rated with five stars experienced, on average, 67% fewer complications and 10% less time as an inpatient than patients at one-star rated hospitals. Patients also had, on average, a four-times higher risk of dying if they had a bariatric surgery performed at 1-star rated hospitals compared to 5-star rated hospitals.

The fifth annual "HealthGrades Bariatric Surgery Trends in American Hospitals Study" is the largest annual study of its kind. The study of objective patient outcomes evaluated all hospitals in 19 states during the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 using data obtained from state governments. Hospitals could not choose whether or not to participate in the study. In all, nearly 200,000 surgeries were evaluated for major in-hospital complication rates at the 481 hospitals that performed bariatric surgeries in sufficient enough volumes to be rated.

Sacred Heart's Surgical Weight Loss Center was founded in 2005 and serves patients throughout Northwest Florida and South Alabama. Its multidisciplinary team of healthcare experts includes a surgeon, a dietitian, a psychologist, and dedicated OR, clinical and nursing staffs. The center's medical director is Dr. Jeffery Lord, a nationally recognized expert in the field of minimally invasive bariatric surgery.

Bariatric surgery can produce dramatic weight loss among the morbidly obese, who comprise almost five percent of the national population, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In many cases, individuals undergoing the procedure lose the equivalent of one-third of their body weight or more. Bariatric surgery has also been shown, in the morbidly obese, to significantly improve or cure a variety of major health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.

The HealthGrades study is available at www.healthgrades.com. For more information on Sacred Heart Surgical Weight Loss Center, visit www.sacred-heart.org/weightloss or call 416-7546.