Bariatric department is Mayo's latest move over to Madison East Center
Jul. 22—A recent move and the hiring of a second surgeon in Mankato are part of Mayo Clinic Health System's plans to expand its bariatric surgery services department at Madison East Center.
The service is the latest to move from the hospital campus on Marsh Street into the health system's Madison East Health Campus. Bariatric surgery is a treatment for obesity where surgical procedures like gastric bypass are used to assist in weight loss.
The new location is exciting on multiple levels, said Dr. Megan Gilmore, bariatric surgeon at Mayo in Mankato since 2012.
For one, there's more space at Madison East in comparison to the department's previous, downstairs location on Marsh Street. The recent move also brought the department closer to physical therapy, convenient given the collaboration between the departments before and after surgeries.
Bariatric surgeries aren't seen as the standalone cure-all for morbid obesity. Long-term treatment of the chronic disease entails permanent lifestyle changes when it comes to your diet and exercise after a surgery.
It's usually considered as an option when a person is at risk for serious health problems because of their weight, or when diet and exercise alone haven't been effective.
Dietitians, another close collaborator to any bariatric department, remain on the hospital campus. The health system, though, has plans to bring surgical, physician therapy, dietitians and behavioral health together in one location in the future.
"Patients could see me, then see their dietitians, then run over and see PT," Gilmore said. "That's really our goal is to make it easy for our patients."
So more space was the impetus for the move, while the move itself is one piece of the puzzle to bringing related services together in close proximity at Madison East.
"Ultimately the goal is we'll build a new clinic that's dedicated to our program that will include all the team members," Gilmore said.
The department recently completed its 500th surgery in Mankato under Gilmore's leadership. A second surgeon, Dr. Ashwini Poola, joined the department this year.
It's exciting to be part of the department's expansion, Poola said. It'll mean patients don't have as far to go or as long to wait for weight-loss surgeries.
"With two surgeons I think that means it becomes an even more accessible service," she said. "There's not as much of a wait time."
The goal is to keep patient wait times under one month, Gilmore said.
"I like patients, once they're approved, to be able to have their surgery within 30 days," she said. "Having two of us is hopefully going to get us back down to 30 days. Right now it's more like eight weeks out that people are scheduling for surgery."
Double the surgeons also allows for more complex surgeries in Mankato, said Gilmore and Poola.
Like other chronic diseases, addressing obesity — defined as a body mass index, or BMI, higher than 30 — early can keep health problems from multiplying. Some patients hesitate to bring the topic up with their doctors, Gilmore said, but the earlier they do, the better.
Once a patient's BMI reaches 40 or higher, she said bariatric surgery should be one of the first options a doctor brings up for treatment. Treating it as a last resort in those instances may just lead to irreversibly negative health outcomes.
Researchers await new data showing how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted obesity rates in the U.S. Given how there was less access to gyms during long stretches of the pandemic, a worsening of rates wouldn't be surprising once the data becomes available.
County health rankings using data from 2019 found about 34% of adults in Blue Earth County were obese, about middle of the road among Minnesota counties. Waseca County, which is within the Mayo health system's southwest Minnesota region, had the third-highest obesity rate in the state at 39%.
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