Sarah Bush Lincoln now offers a comprehensive bariatric services program to residents of the greater Coles County region through an innovative partnership with Memorial Medical Center in Springfield.

“The establishment of Memorial Bariatric Services at Sarah Bush Lincoln responds to the need for safe, clinically effective strategies for weight loss for persons suffering from clinically severe obesity,” Dr. Bernie Ranchero, medical director at Sarah Bush Lincoln, said. “We are very pleased that the Memorial Weight Loss and Wellness Center is joining with Sarah Bush Lincoln to offer the full range of ancillary support needed for a truly comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to durable surgical weight loss for patients.”

Through this partnership, people will have access to the Memorial Bariatric Services, a weight loss surgery program under the Memorial Weight Loss and Wellness Center. The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and American College of Surgeons accredited the center under the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP) since 2010.

Ranchero explained that Sarah Bush Lincoln staff will provide pre- and post-operative medical management, nutrition, physical therapy, social work, laboratory and imaging services for patients at Sarah Bush Lincoln. Dr. Orlando Icaza, bariatric medical director of the Memorial Weight Loss and Wellness Center and a Springfield Clinic bariatric surgeon, and Dr. Adam Reid, assistant bariatric medical director at the Weight Loss and Wellness Center and an SIU Medicine bariatric surgeon, will perform the weight-loss surgical procedures at Memorial Medical Center.

“The satellite clinic and ancillary support services at Sarah Bush Lincoln will offer the same high-quality, protocol-driven care for these patients,” Ranchero said.

More than 2,000 weight-loss surgeries have been performed at Memorial. Bariatric procedures offered include roux-en-y gastric bypass, adjustable gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy, duodenal switch and revisional surgery. All are laparoscopic, or minimally invasive, procedures.

“Perhaps the most remarkable benefit for our patients is the improvement and resolution of co-morbidities, or co-existing health conditions, at three years after a bariatric surgery,” Icaza said. “Eighty percent of our patients afflicted with sleep apnea have had that condition completely resolved while it improved for another 5 percent of those individuals. Type 2 diabetes mellitus has been resolved in 55 percent of those suffering from this co-morbidity prior to their bariatric surgery. The condition has improved for another 22 percent of these patients.

“Similar results have been achieved for those with co-morbidities that include hypertension, back pain, osteoarthritis or urinary stress, among others.”

Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the country, second only to smoking. “Memorial Bariatric Services was established as a comprehensive program to address the medical, emotional and social issues that accompany the care required to successfully treat and manage this condition,” Icaza said.

For more information about Memorial Weight Loss and Wellness Center at Sarah Bush Lincoln, visit MemorialWeightLossAndWellnessCenter.com or call 866-205-7915.