Mark Sechrist joined Bariatric Partners in May 2008, as Vice President of Operations. He has over 20 years of experience in healthcare operations. Prior to joining Bariatric Partners, Mr. Sechrist was Vice President of Operations with Surgical Care Affiliates holding overall responsibility for 13 multispecialty surgery centers in 6 states. Previous positions included Omnicare where he developed a nursing home based dialysis program; MediSphere Health Partners managing physician practices; Gambro Healthcare operating outpatient dialysis programs in New England; and, Ball Memorial Hospital where he reorganized outpatient services including an outpatient ambulatory surgery center. Mr. Sechrist earned a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s of Health Administration from Indiana University.

John Fetch joined Bariatric Partners, Inc. in April 2008. Mr. Fetch has over 20 years of healthcare experience on both the payer and provider side of the industry. Prior to joining Bariatric Partners, Inc., Mr. Fetch was employed by a national hospital management company overseeing business development and managed care contracting. He has also held executive level positions with national managed care companies, primarily in the provider contracting area. Mr. Fetch is responsible for all managed care contracting and business development activities with Bariatric Partners, Inc. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Youngstown State University.

Gaston Wilson is Vice President of Finance and Controller for Bariatric Partners, Inc. where he contributes his 20 years of finance and accounting experience to the management team. Prior to joining Bariatric Partners, Gaston was the founder and President of Gaston D. Wilson, CPA, PA, a consulting practice providing financial consulting, guidance and support functions to finance departments and corporate management teams. His previous positions prior to the establishment of his firm included four years as the Director of Finance for a wireless service provider, four years in managing the financial reporting at MedCath, Inc. and five years with Ernst and Young in that professional services firms’ Business Assurance practice.

Lisa Thomas joined Bariatric Partners, Inc. as Director of Clinical Services in July 2007.  She has over 30 years of healthcare experience in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASC).  Her extensive background includes patient care activities and management responsibilities in the ASC, with a focus on development and operations. This includes compliance requirements associated with federal statutes, state regulations and accreditation standards.  

In 1993, Ms Thomas became the Director of an ambulatory surgery center in Kansas.  The surgery center was the second ASC for a Nashville-based corporate partner which eventually became one of the premier ASC corporations in the United States.  Within a year, she joined the AmSurg Nashville operations division and successfully guided other corporate ambulatory surgery centers to accreditation status. Ms. Thomas transferred to the AmSurg development team, and, in 1999, co-founded her own consulting business, Accreditation Plus.  Under her leadership, thirteen ASCs were developed and 31 ASCs received accreditation.

Immediately after relocating to Florida in 2001, Ms. Thomas became active with local professional organizations, including a board position with the Florida Society of Ambulatory Surgery Centers.  In addition, she held a full-time position as director of a physician-owned ASC which performed more than 10,000 procedures annually.  

Ms. Thomas maintains memberships with AORN, SGNA, and FASA, and is the author of an article which appeared in Outpatient Surgery Magazine in 2004.  She was a past presenter at the SGNA National Nurses' Convention addressing the attendees on the preparedness requirements for seeking accreditation.

Ms. Thomas oversees the clinical services for Bariatric Partners, Inc. and its outpatient surgery centers operating under the brand name JourneyLite on a regional basis.