Tampa General Hospital is a leading referral center for weight loss surgery. This year the Bariatric Surgery Program celebrates 10 years of Excellence in Bariatric Surgery. Our program has been a leader in Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass in the Tampa Bay area since 1998 and offers both Gastric Bypass and Lap-Band procedures. We are the only interdisciplinary and comprehensive program in the area, and our physicians and support staff are the most experienced. We continue to employ state-of-the-art innovations in the care of obese patients before and after weight loss surgery. As a result our program has gained regional and national recognition for excellence in patient care.

Our Bariatric Program was the first in the nation to receive disease-specific certification with the Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) in 2005, and the first program in Tampa Bay to be designated as a Bariatric Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in 2006.

Our commitment to promoting our Mission of advancing collaborative learning and discovery, leading to improvements in the full spectrum of health in the community will be achieved through Prevention, Active Living, Intervention and Continuous Wellness and by developing real-world solutions aimed at making life better. To that end, we will again host the upcoming Annual Conference on Obesity: New Frontiers in Metabolic Wellness, September 19-21, 2008 at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida.