BMI limit for surgery centers?

[Laurel123]

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Do you guys have a BMI limit for free standing surgery centers? I am just curious because the new one that is opening in our groups practice is debating. It seems sort of arbitrary. I think they are setting it at 40. Sounds pretty fat to me, but I guess it depends on the patient

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Do you guys have a BMI limit for free standing surgery centers? I am just curious because the new one that is opening in our groups practice is debating. It seems sort of arbitrary. I think they are setting it at 40. Sounds pretty fat to me, but I guess it depends on the patient

No. At one of our centers, we've done as high as a BMI of 60 and that patient went home without issue.

 

[Mman]

I would think it would depend on what type of surgery they are having done as to how high a BMI could safely be handled in a surgery center. It'd be one thing to do a minor procedure on an extremity in somebody with a BMI of 55. It'd be another thing to try a lap chole.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

I would think it would depend on what type of surgery they are having done as to how high a BMI could safely be handled in a surgery center. It'd be one thing to do a minor procedure on an extremity in somebody with a BMI of 55. It'd be another thing to try a lap chole.

Lap bands.

 

[Intubate]

Our surgery center's cut off is a BMI of 40 too. I think this is a somewhat arbitrary number. You could certainly do bigger without problems and have terrible problems with smaller. One of the biggest issues here is going to be that most of these patients will have OSA (diagnosed or not) to some degree. If that's the case, depending on the procedure and severity of obstruction, they may need admission for monitoring. The practice guidelines aren't all that clear and are of course just guidelines, so common sense should be used. Arbitrary cutoffs will probably weed out some problems, but don't really solve anything.