Liz Farwell Professional RN, MS, APRN-BC,APN-CNS, CBN Bariatric Coordinator

Liz Farwell is an Advanced Practice Nurse, Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist and Bariatric Coordinator. She works with four bariatric surgeons: Dr Woody Denham, Dr Stephen Haggerty, Dr John Linn and Dr Michael Ujiki. In her role as Bariatric Coordinator she manages the care of bariatric patients including initial consult through surgery and ongoing follow-up. In addition, she provides Lap Band adjustments and follow-up care for post surgical patients. She coordinates care with our multi-disciplinary bariatric team including bariatric surgeons, registered nurses, bariatric psychologists, bariatric dietitians, exercise physiologist, and internists. She has worked in Bariatrics since 2008. Her prior experience includes Cardiac and Vascular Surgery ICU and med- surgery nursing at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL for 14 years, as both an RN and APN, and vascular surgery APN at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL. NorthShore University HealthSystem is a Center of Excellence through the American College of Surgeons. Liz works with insurance companies to ensure our patients’ approval for bariatric surgery and ensured NorthShore’s recognition as a Bariatric Center of Excellence with multiple insurance companies. Liz coordinates multiple aspects of our bariatric program, including our monthly Bariatric Support Groups. She is also active with the Advanced Practitioner Council. Our program philosophy is to treat the Entire patient.   Obesity is a far reaching medical problem that has effects on multiple body systems at once – whether it’s physical, mental, diabetes, sleep, pain, infertility, etc, etc, many systems are involved. And it is important that we address the entire patient, in order to have the best outcome. We work as a Team. There are 2 full time Bariatric Registered Nurses that work with me. Our surgical scheduler is part of all of out meetings. We have 3 dietitians that specialize in bariatrics. We have multiple health psychologists that we work with. We have an exercise physiologist available if necessary. We feel it is important for our patients to have consistency with the team. And since we are a team, if one location or day of the week is better for the patient, we are happy to have them schedule accordingly. With our electronic medical record, we can easily provide care from multiple practice sites across the north and northwest Chicagoland area.