Inpatient Referral to Comprehensive Weight Management for Patients With Obesity

Hospitalized patients with obesity who are not already in CWM (comprehensive weight management), or not comfort care/hospice will be identified by the hospitalists then the study dietitian will consent for the patient for enrollment (and answer any question regarding diet/lifestyle) in the study. The intervention will be a CWM referral at discharge. The outcome will be what percentage of these patients go to the CWM clinic at 6 months. At 6 months, the investigators will also call each participant to get a qualitative idea of the process of inpatient referral and barriers to the CWM clinic visit. Weight loss, starting on anti-obesity medication, bariatric surgery will be assessed as a secondary outcome.

* The investigators will conduct an uncontrolled, one arm interventional study on Adult (≥ 18 years of age) hospitalized patients who have obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m 2 or BMI ≥ 27 kg/m 2 if Asian/South Asian), and after stabilization of their acute medical conditions. Prior to hospital discharge, patients will receive a referral for an outpatient comprehensive weight management clinic, with a message that will be sent to the CWM clinic scheduler. Then the investigators will follow the patients forward for 6 months from hospital discharge to assess primary and secondary outcomes. Also, the investigators will look at a historical control group of hospitalized patients with obesity (age, comorbidity matched) from 2014-2019 (chosen instead of 2020, to avoid any impact of 2020 COVID 19 pandemic) and compare the primary and secondary outcomes. At six months after discharge, patients will receive a phone call from the investigators to ascertain whether they were able to go to the comprehensive weight management clinic and about their experience. * Hospitalized patients who have decision-making capacity and whose acute medical condition has been stabilized who meet study criteria will be identified by study physician(s) who will look at his/her personal patient list on a regular basis to identify patients who meet enrollment criteria and will refer the patients to the co-investigator who is not directly involved in the patient's care who will then discuss enrollment with patients.