A leading consumer health care ratings service has ranked Burbank’s Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center among the top 5 percent in the U.S. For the second year in a row the hospital’s weight loss surgery program was awarded one of the nation’s best by HealthGrades, earning a Bariatric Surgery Excellence Award, according to a written statement by the hospital. “Bariatric surgery has been shown to vastly improve the health of patients who have battled obesity, and we are proud to be recognized for delivering the highest quality of care,” said surgeon Philippe Quilici, medical director of the Burbank hospital’s Bariatric Wellness Center. Providence Saint Joseph is one of 10 California hospitals, and 24 nationwide, to get this award for procedures performed from 2008 to 2010, the hospital said. Surgeries include gastric-bypass, as well as stomach banding, which is less complex. The hospital also had the lowest complication rates of major hospitals in the greater Los Angeles area, according to HealthGrades Global Complication Rates for Bariatric Services, the hospital said. “Our findings show a significant difference between 5-star hospitals and those performing on the 1-star level for bariatric surgery, especially when it comes to in-hospital complication rates,” said Dr. Arshad Rahim, group vice president of Accelerated Clinical Excellence at HealthGrades, and the study’s author. Leah Gillis