Supersized Healthcare: Creating Healing Environments for Obese Patients

Rising obesity has significant clinical, legal, cost and reimbursement implications for healthcare facilities. We will focus on hospital accommodation of obese patients, both in general and in bariatric surgery programs. This session will focus on the definition of obesity, incidence rates and how they are changing, as well as what hospitals are doing to meet the needs of these patients and the staff taking care of them.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the magnitude and implications of the obesity trend in terms of American health and cost to our healthcare system.
• Recognize the steps healthcare providers are taking (programs, staffing, and equipment) in response to the increasing obesity trend.
• List the important programming and design factors in supporting a hospital bariatric surgery program.
• Describe the issues and sensitive solutions related to physical accommodation of severely obese patients in the healthcare setting.
• Access various resources, including bariatric program support/creation and equipment manufacturers related to accommodating this patient population.

Who should attend this event:

• Facility Owners
• Administrators
• Operations Management
• COO
• Purchasers
• Architects
• Facility Managers