Weight Loss Surgery Length of Stay
What are we measuring?
The average number of days a patient undergoing weight loss surgery stays in the hospital.
Why is this important
The number of days that surgery patients must stay in the hospital is a way of looking at both the efficiency of care as well as its effectiveness. A shorter average length of stay may indicate that patients are recovering more quickly and experiencing fewer complications. However it is important to consider how extensive the surgery is that is being performed. For example, average length of stay does not take into account how ill the patients are, or that not everyone is a candidate for laparoscopic surgery which on average has a lower length of stay because it is less invasive.
What does our performance tell us?
The chart below shows the average length of stay for patients undergoing weight loss surgery at BIDMC during CY 2008.
In CY 2008, BIDMC's average Length of Stay (LOS) for patients undergoing Open Roux-en-Y weight loss surgery was 5 days; patients undergoing Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y surgery had an average length of stay of 2.9 days. Patients undergoing Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding had an average Length of Stay in the hospital of 1.3 days. While there are no nationally recognized benchmarks, BIDMC provides this performance data as additional information.
What are we doing to improve?
Here at BIDMC we have developed clinical pathways for our weight loss surgery patients. A Clinical Pathway is similar to a large checklist posted next to the patient’s hospital bed that serves as a roadmap for both the caregivers and the patient throughout their recovery. It lists everything from what tests a patient can expect before surgery, to how soon he or she should be able to sit in a chair, to when an IV will be removed. With a clinical pathway, everyone is on the same page—nurses, doctors and the patient, clinical pathways contribute dramatically to patient education and patient satisfaction, and an appropriate length of stay in the hospital based upon the specific weight loss procedure performed.
Last Updated: May 26, 2009
