Weight-loss surgery center shuts doors

Patients who expected to have weight-loss surgery at Valley Medical Center in Renton were left in limbo earlier this month when their doctors' office suddenly and inexplicably closed its doors.

Valley Medical Center, which leases office and operating-room space to the Weight Institute and Surgical Healthcare (Wish) Center, one of a chain of for-profit weight-loss surgery centers in the U.S., was at a loss to explain the situation.

"To be honest with you, we are as surprised and shocked as the patients are," said Perry Cooper, spokesman for Valley Medical Center. "We've never seen anything come to a situation like this — suddenly there is no answering the phone, and [they're] not returning their messages. We're just as dumbfounded as the patients."

Cooper said many patients take vacation time for the surgical procedures and recovery, "and put a lot of preparation into these procedures that are coming up — then they come in for a scheduled procedure and nobody is there."

Several patients contacted Valley to ask what was going on when they found the Wish Center closed and calls not returned, Cooper said.

He said five patients were scheduled for surgeries over the past week and a half and five for next week, in addition to patients who had scheduled pre- and post-operative office visits.

Some of the surgery patients had already deposited down payments for the procedures, Cooper said. Valley is refunding the hospital's portion.

Typically, the Wish Center schedules about 25 surgeries a month at Valley, Cooper said. The center, which was in the process of moving from one leased office space to another on the medical center's campus, had said it would reopen after Labor Day.

But Labor Day came and went, and patients started calling Valley Medical when they couldn't get in touch with the Wish Center, Cooper said. A recorded message at the center says the clinic is "temporarily closed," and asks patients to page the doctors, Dr. Claudio Gabriel Alperovich and Dr. Jeffrey Strain.

It is not clear yet who ordered the clinic to be closed.

Matt Spohn, a Minneapolis attorney, said his client, Wish Acquisition, LLC, provides "non-medical management services" to the Renton center, which is operated by Wish Acquisition of Washington, LLC. That company is owned by Alperovich, Spohn said.

Both Alperovich and Strain declined to answer questions.

Cooper said Valley has been very pleased with Alperovich and Strain's surgical work. "Both doctors have done exceptional work," he said.

But, Cooper added, the center, like any independent doctor's office, is responsible for day-to-day communication with patients. "They have not done a good job of it," he said. "This is not compassionate care."

Cooper said Valley was aware that Wish had some financial difficulties. "But in any of our discussions with them, we never had any indications that any of this was going to affect patient care."

The Wish Center's holding company, which filed for bankruptcy in Illinois last year, was subsequently sold to a group of investors.

In a statement, Spohn said: "Though we understand the center achieved outstanding clinical outcomes, it is currently closed. It is not known when or if it will reopen."

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com