The OCC Difference

A specialized environment is required when caring for a weight loss surgery patient. The facility is an essential component that directly contributes to the safe execution of a procedure and desirable outcome.^{1, 2, 3, 4, 44, 45}

Doctor at Obesity Control Center holding a model of a stomach

Innovation

As an innovator, I have registered and helped patent several groundbreaking procedures in the U.S. trademarks and patents office. These procedures include the IGS, SSGS, the Sleeve Rescue, the Bypass Rescue, the Obalon, and the world’s first swallowable gastric balloon, to name a few. Our three decades of expertise and innovation have landed us in the media frequently, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Doctors, Nightline, Good Morning America, FOX News with Stuart Varney, and many others. Our standard of care is passed on to all our surgical team as well as our branded techniques so the patient can be sure that my team will always deliver the best possible care available anywhere. — Dr. Ariel Ortiz®^{46, 47, 48}

Dr. Ariel Ortiz speaking with a male patient

Medical Technology

Weight loss surgery demands a specialized environment that involves a huge investment into technology. Evaluating a destination will be challenging for you as a patient, but it’s important to consider, especially because you’re traveling to a distant organization for care. Technology includes IT systems like electronic medical records, scheduling software programs, Telehealth platforms, centralized command centers, and the latest specialized medical equipment. All costly investments, each one has its own set of engineers and technicians required to keep these running and up-to-date. At our facility, we go the extra mile by becoming centers of reference, centers of excellence, or partners with the biomedical industry — such as Mindray Stryker, and LG to name a few.

About the Practice

Stryker

We’re proud to announce that our partnership has helped us acquire one of the most advanced surgical imaging units in the industry, Stryker®. We are one of the few hospitals in LA to have the most advanced fluorescence imaging equipment.

This technology is quickly becoming the surgical standard for complex bariatric procedures. This camera equipment we what we use to vie during surgery and is several times more advanced and sensitive than the naked eye.

LG Technology

New to the medical field, LG technology enhances patient care at many levels. For example, our hospital monitors greet our patients in their hospital rooms with a personalized menu with their name and a welcome message, pre- and post-surgery educational videos, prescriptions, and other vital information is displayed — not to mention access to most of the top streaming platforms for entertainment. Digital signage is another area where LG shines, as it allows us to display educational videos in patient areas. Restricted hospital areas are enhanced by using monitors to display medical charts, surgery schedules, hospital patient lists, and telemetry, to name a few.

The Facility

Our facility redefines “state-of-the-art”. After three decades of experience, we have designed a one-of-a-kind, 360-care concept where each and every patient is always visible and in touch with the medical and nursing staff. Every area has been designed to exceed our patients’ needs during their short stay. Patient flow dynamics have been built into our center and will facilitate patient care at every level. Other essentials include specialized medical equipment from operating room tables, lights, and surgical equipment to specialized beds, monitors, and other equipment discussed in the Technology Video.

Medical Team Continuous Education

Always review what will give your bariatric surgeon that extra advantage. Academics are an important part of a surgeon’s practice. Dr. Ariel Ortiz is the Professor of Surgery and Clinical Medicine UABC, which guarantees that the knowledge he applies on a daily basis is up-to-date.

He also happens to be the Global Director of the IBC Oxford University Academic Series, which gives him a distinct advantage of knowing and interacting academically with the top surgeons globally.

Patient Education Program

Every patient is enrolled in our OCC exclusive Patient Education & Tracking program. Every patient will receive a short informative video from day one.

These videos include essential pre-surgery information pertaining to patient preparation, nutritional and medical requirements before traveling, patient travel guidelines, and other important information.

During the few days before during after surgery, patients receive educational videos related to that period which cover information associated with recovery and nutrition. Our education program extends for five years and is especially important during the critical months after surgery to guarantee a full recovery and a successful and permanent outcome. This program has been custom-designed, and there are decades of accumulated knowledge and wisdom delivered to the patient’s inbox daily.

Our program is complemented by our state-of-the-art medical technology that facilitates the process even further. This is discussed in the Medical Technology Video.^{49, 50, 51}

The Program: Quality Compassionate Care

Surgery is just a tool. As such, a supporting program is essential for successful weight loss that does not result in failure a few years down the road. Our customized program starts with selecting the right patient for the right procedure. Patent selection and preparation are essential to keep the patient safe during surgery, which results in the best possible outcome. Our published 30-year track record of patient safety is the best in the industry. No patient travels to our facility unless they are fully approved by our multidisciplinary team until we are sure they are optimally prepared and ready for surgery.

Patient Care Before Surgery

Our patient care coordinators are part of our team — not a sales rep on commission wanting to make a quick sale. Our patient care coordinators have undergone extensive training and are specialized in educating the patient before surgery and are there to facilitate the process of patient scheduling. Our program includes an online patient portal that tracks and educates a patient from day one. This is an OCC exclusive.

Visit our Patient Portal

Accreditations: The Only Trustworthy Source

How do you go about deciding on a provider for weight loss surgery when traveling abroad? You can get familiarized by reading the provider’s website. You can also read about them through reviews and online forums or get recommended by word of mouth. But is the information on the website trustworthy? Are a few reviews or word of mouth enough to trust a provider with your life and wellbeing? The only objective way to truly know your weight loss provider is by having an expert in the medical field review them. Reviewing a medical establishment is a complex matter, and much more if it is an international provider. It requires a careful analysis of the facility, its surgeons, the staff, and the medical practice.

This is why third-party accreditation organizations exist. They are experts in the field of quality and safety in healthcare, and they set the highest standards available annually.

A medical organization voluntarily submits a request to become accredited. Not only are these accreditations extremely expensive, they’re also very strict — and most importantly, extremely challenging to obtain. The gold standard of all medical accreditations is the Joint Commission. Any doctor or nurse in the U.S. will tell you that there’s nothing more demanding and strict than being certified by Jaco. Being accredited means that you have successfully met the approximately 3,200 requirements of quality and safety assurance that they evaluate.

Joint Commission accreditation proves to patients and other facilities that your facility is devoted to providing the safest and highest-quality patient care. This is the highest U.S. standard in care, and very few bariatric surgery hospitals outside the U.S. have this accreditation. Obesity Control Center is the only facility in the world to have five worlds class. No hospital comes close.^{1, 2, 3, 4}

BioMed Team

Our BioMed team members are engineers and experts in all the medical equipment that is required to monitor and intervene with a patient surgically, and to provide care after the procedure. When things go right, all is fine — but if something malfunctions, things can get bad very quickly. At our facility, we double up on everything. We have redundancy at every level. This means that if something fails, we have a backup (and backup of the backup as well). These practices are rarely found in budget centers, and BioMed engineers are a rarity in hospitals offering budget weight loss surgery.

OR Nursing Team

Our OR nursing team members are specialized nurses that are experts in surgery techniques and assist the surgeons in performing the procedures safely and effectively. Our team is ACLS certified. Part of their activities includes teaching and researching.

Quality Assurance Team

This is probably the most critical element of safety in any hospital. You will be hard-pressed to find any HT hospital that has this department. The Quality Assurance Team oversees, reviews, and improves quality in a hospital.

This is a constant day in, day out. Quality assurance is dynamic and changes every day. Our quality director and team are accredited professionals in quality assurance and can boast they are backed up by being awarded five world-class quality accreditations. The single most important ingredient in safety is accreditation. Never forget in this equation: Quality equals safety.