As part of USA Health, the only academic health system on the upper Gulf Coast, our clinic helps you achieve your weight-loss goals by offering bariatric surgery, medically supervised weight-loss, and dietitian-lead lifestyle management.
Providence Hospital is a Comprehensive Center of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery, awarded by the American College of Surgeons. To earn this designation, Providence Hospital met and exceeded essential criteria for staffing, training, facility infrastructure and patient care pathways, ensuring its ability to support patients with obesity.
Providence Hospital has been recognized by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama with a Blue Distinction® Centers for Bariatric Surgery designation, part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program. To earn this designation, a healthcare facility must demonstrate that it meets many specific patient quality and safety metrics, including providing effective bariatric surgical procedures with a very low complication and readmission rate.
Please call us at 251-660-3506 for our daily hours.
Your journey beings with a free seminar to learn about your weight-loss options, what to expect, and how to change your lifestyle. You can attend a seminar in-person or watch a prerecorded one below:
Once you've watched the seminar video, please submit your information. We look forward to talking with you!
At USA Health Providence Bariatrics, we offer many options for weight loss services. In addition to medically supervised weight-loss and dietitian-lead lifestyle management, we perform three types of bariatric surgeries. These procedures can be performed laparoscopically or robotically with small or open incisions. Nearly all of Dr. Laan’s weight-loss surgeries use small incisions.
In a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, we divide the stomach with a stapler to make a small pouch, reducing the patient's stomach capacity from the size of a football to the size of an egg, so the patient will feel full with less food. We attach a Y-shaped section of the small intestine to the pouch, so food bypasses most of the stomach and goes directly into the “roux limb.” Most patients do not experience excessive malabsorption of nutrients, and the ability to consume fluids is not affected because they quickly pass through the pouch. Patients typically lose 60-70% of their excess body weight. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass also can reduce symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
In a sleeve gastrectomy, we remove the outside portion of the stomach to create a long, tubular shape like a banana. By reducing the volume of the stomach, the patient will feel satisfied with less food, so they will eat less and lose weight. Unlike gastric bypass, this procedure does not involve rerouting the intestines. Because it does not involve intestinal malabsorption, the patient must eat a healthy diet and exercise to maintain optimal weight loss. Patients who have a sleeve gastrectomy usually lose 50-60% of their excess body weight.
BPD/DS is a two-step procedure. First, we perform a sleeve gastrectomy to remove the outside portion of the stomach, reducing its volume. But unlike a sleeve gastrectomy, we do not remove the pyloric valve, which releases food to the small intestine. We also leave the duodenum, the portion of the small intestine that connects to the stomach. Second, we bypass the majority of the intestine by connecting its end to the duodenum. A BPD/DS reduces how much the patient can eat and how many nutrients they can absorb. It is recommended for patients whose body mass index (BMI) is greater than 50.
Meet the providers who treat patients at this USA Health location.
USA Health Providence Bariatrics offers free parking to all patients and visitors.
This clinic offers free parking and complimentary Wi-Fi to patients and their guests.
“I look forward to using the knowledge and skills I gain from this program to advocate for improved healthcare services in rural communities, especially those in Mobile and along the Gulf Coast,” said Janel Lowman.
“It has been nice to come back to the place where it started. I had some excellent mentors, and hopefully I can be that for the next generation,” said Michael Fesenmeier, M.D.
USA Health is the only health system in the area to offer vaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (vNOTES), an advanced approach to hysterectomy that removes the uterus through the vagina, with no abdominal incisions.
Our calendar lists special events and regularly scheduled classes separately. To display a list of upcoming classes, select the "Classes" option above or visit Events, Classes and Support Groups at USA Health.
