BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and BlueChoice HealthPlan of South Carolina recognized Spartanburg Medical Center with a Blue Distinction® Center designation for bariatric surgery as part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program. Blue Distinction Centers are nationally designated healthcare facilities shown to deliver quality specialty care based on objective measures that were developed with input from the medical community for patient safety and better health outcomes.

To receive a Blue Distinction Center for Bariatric Surgery designation, a healthcare facility must demonstrate success in meeting patient safety as well as bariatric-specific quality measures, including complications and readmissions, for gastric stapling and/or gastric banding procedures. A healthcare facility must also have earned national accreditations at both the facility level and the bariatric care-specific level.

Along with this designation, Spartanburg Medical Center is also achieved reaccreditation as a Comprehensive Accredited Center by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP) in 2015.

Bariatric surgeries are among the most common elective surgeries in the United States. There were 179,000 bariatric surgeries performed in 2013 in the United States, according to the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

It is estimated that 72 million Americans are obese and 24 million suffer from morbid obesity, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The estimated annual healthcare costs of obesity-related illnesses are $190.2 billion, or nearly 21 percent of annual medical spending in the U.S., according to the Journal of Health Economics.

Facilities designated as Blue Distinction Centers demonstrate better quality and improved outcomes for patients compared with their peers.

Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find quality providers in bariatric surgery, cardiac care, maternity care, complex and rare cancers, knee and hip replacements, spine surgery, and transplants while encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the care they deliver.

For more information about the program and for a complete listing of the designated facilities, please visit www.bcbs.com/bluedistinction.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and BlueChoice HealthPlan of South Carolina are independent licensees of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.