Hospital History and Background
Forest Health Medical Center is organized as a specialty surgical hospital owned by the same specialty physicians who perform surgery in the hospital. The majority owner of the hospital has 26 years experience in owning and operating specialty surgical healthcare facilities. Forest Health Medical Center was one of the first hospitals dedicated to bariatric surgery. The bariatric surgery program was originally known as Bariatric Treatment Centers and later renamed Barix Clinics. Forest Health Medical Center has performed more bariatric surgeries than any other organization in the United States and has the best patient quality and outcome statistics as compiled by independent healthcare review organizations. As the national leader in bariatric surgery our hospital has extensive experience in complex major surgery including minimally invasive major surgery which significantly reduces the recovery time from surgery and reduces the pain associated with major surgery.
As a leading surgical hospital, the hospital’s surgeons are referred patients by other specialists such as orthopaedic surgeons. Former Barix patients are extremely loyal to their surgeons and our hospitals because of the high quality outcomes and care they experience in our hospital and frequently ask their bariatric surgeons for referrals to other surgeons for specialists. Over the years the specialists at FHMC developed positive professional relationships with other specialty surgeons. These surgeons found that while in certain cases a university hospital or large medical center is the best solution for specialty surgical procedures they performed, for most of their patients a better experience could be provided in a specialty surgical hospital. Surgery is a very personal experience and FHMC is a setting where each patient is treated individually with special care by every member of care-giving team.
Forest Health Medical Center was formerly a 150-bed community hospital providing general medical care. In 2002 the hospital was acquired and after extensive renovations with a special focus on modernizing the operating rooms and support areas, such as pre-op and recovery rooms, the hospital was re-opened. As part of the renovation the hospital beds were reduced from 150 to 68 because of the exclusive focus on specialty surgery. Certain services such as general inpatient medical care and the emergency room service were no longer offered as the hospital focused on providing specialty surgical services only. Although FHMC is a specialty surgical hospital, it has the all of the staff resources and equipment of a major university hospital. The hospital is accredited by the nations leading hospital review organization and is Medicare certified as well as a participant with most private healthcare insurance companies. Now 17 years later the hospital has developed a reputation for providing the best surgical outcomes and personal care available in southeast Michigan.
