centers of excellence in washington

Virginia Mason said that they are one of only 3 centers of excellence in washington state. Is that true?

It's highly possible . For a long time St. Francis was the only center of excellence .

The American College of Surgeons has a nice Website on this: http://www.facs.org/cqi/bscn/fullapproval.html

Class 1a centers: UW Medical Center, St. Francis Hospital

Class 2 centers:  Northwest Hospital and Medical Center

New Class 2 centers: Northwest Weight Loss Surgery in Everett (outpatient surgery and office visits only)

I can't find Virginia Mason on the Website, but I don't pretend to be an expert.  I might not have known how to find it.

There are 2 ways to become a Center of Excellence.... Virginia Mason is a Center of Excellence through the American Society of Bariatric Surgery. 

The best source to seeing all the Center of Excellence the  Medicare list of approved sites.

Here is the Web Site:

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareApprovedFacilitie/BSF/list.as p