It is important that whomever is planning to have surgery in Mexico, verifies the medical facilities are certified for bariatrics, as well as the surgeon, who should also be board-certified in bariatrics. It is not the same thing being a certified general surgery doctor, than a board-certified surgeon in bariatrics.

When a surgeon is board-certified in bariatrics, the facilities from which such surgeon practices, it is also certified.

To verify the facilities and the surgeons, there is an official link by the Mexican Council for Obesity Surgery and Metabolic Diseases, to which anyone can go to verify such credentials (copy and paste to your browser)

http://www.cmcoem.org.mx/cirujanos-con-certificacion-vigente-del-cmcoem-2/

The list of board-certified surgeons and facilities is often updated. IF YOUR SURGEON/MEDICAL FACILITY IS NOT ON THAT LIST, then you are not going to a board-certified surgeon, but to someone who is only claiming to be board-certified. Same applies for the medical facilities. Bottom line is: beware of pseudo-surgeons wanting to make fast and easy money out of unsuspected people.

There is another list featuring the surgeons who are IN THE PROCESS of being BOARD-CERTIFIED IN BARIATRICS. Being on this other list DOES NOT mean the surgeon applying will be approved and certified in bariatrics. It only means the surgeon started the process, which may take months or even years to pass. If a surgeon's name is not moved from this list to the LIST OF BOARD-CERTIFIED SURGEONS, means one or several things, among which the most important are: (1) the surgeon has not approve all the tests; (2) the medical facilities have not complied with all the regulations and standards for safety, sanitation and patient care (this part is strictly supervised by the Mexican Federal Government's General Health Ministry).

http://www.cmcoem.org.mx/medicos-en-proceso-de-certificacion-cmcoem/

The committee which supervises the Certification and Accreditation Programs headed by four of the top bariatric (weight loss) surgeons in the country (Mexico):

• Dr. Noé Nuñez. / Coordinator
• Dr. Juan Antonio López Corvala.
• Dr. Fernando Cerón Rodriguez.
• Dr. Pablo Zorrilla.

Hospital Certification in Mexico - Who's in Charge and What is the Purpose.

In Mexico, the certification for hospitals is conducted by the General Health Council (Consejo de Salubridad General), based on international standards approved by the Joint Commission International (JCI, http://www.jointcommissioninternational.org/), which is the world authority on the subject.

The certification of hospitals is not a law, however, promotes benefits to the population.

The Joint Commission International began in 1994 and certifies international processes in hospitals in more than 80 countries, with the aim of improving the safety of patient care.

One of the main objectives of certification is to protect patients from natural risks in hospitals and encourage local medical care to improve the quality of service and to be more competitive, enabling them to attract more customers worldwide and increase profits.

Before the certification program there was a tendency of Mexican hospitals to seek international certifications in the hope of attracting more foreign patients and to improve their income. However, there was no awareness of the natural risks in hospitals and, consequently, patient safety was not being sought, which fortunately changed during the first ten years of the certification program that holds the General Health Council of the Ministry of Health.

In 2008, the full General Health Council approved the proposal to seek approval by the Joint Commission International of the United States, which was achieved at the end of that year with the support of the National Association of Private Hospitals.

That means today's standards used by the General Health Council to assess any hospital in Mexico are already international standards, and secondly the new, modern standards with the safety of patients in mind, has also been incorporated.

Only a handful of hospitals in Mexico, have been able to accomplish the certification process. As a patient, you can verify you have chosen a GHC's, JCI's standards, certified hospital by visiting the following link. Scroll down the list and find your hospital's name. Even though the list is in Spanish, it should not be difficult to spot your hospital.

http://www.csg.gob.mx/descargas/pdfs/certificacion/establecimientos/Hospitales/2015/CertificadoHOSPITALES-Vigente-Enero-2015.pdf