Our Story
1960
The roots of The PATCH Institute were planted in the East Bay community in 1960 by Dr. Arthur Stanten. In 1987 he was joined by his son Dr. Steven Stanten. First Surgical Consultants Medical Group was formed when the practice continued to expand in the 2000s. In 2021, First Surgical Consultants joined BASS Medical Group, a dynamic organization committed to providing the highest quality, comprehensive, personalized, value-driven healthcare to our patients.
Meet all needs
The vision of our group has always been to provide the community with a single practice that can meet all general surgical needs. We offer expertise in all fields of general surgery including oncology, colorectal, hepato-biliary, endocrine, breast and dermatological disease processes. We provide excellence in advanced minimally invasive procedures as many of our surgeons completed advanced laparoscopic fellowship training, and we have offered robotic assisted procedures since 2004.
Robotic & Hernia Expertise
The field of hernia surgery has recently seen the development of many exciting new surgical techniques and a rapid expansion in research publications. While these changes are positive and exciting, they also increased the complexity of hernia treatment. To provide cutting edge treatment for hernias, we brought on board Dr. Rockson Liu in 2017. He established himself as a surgical leader in robotics and hernia surgery at Kaiser Walnut Creek prior to joining us. He was the first general surgeon within Kaiser to be sanctioned to use the daVinci robot. Within Kaiser, he performed the first robotic retrorectus repair and the first Transversus Abdominis Release, two of the most complex hernia procedures. He has become a world expert in hernia surgery. His specialty focus is minimally invasive robotic repair of complex hernias that normally would be repaired with large incisions. He speaks nationally, moderates hernia sessions at Surgical society meetings, and teaches complex hernia courses.
The PATCH Institute
Under the leadership of Dr. Liu, The PATCH Institute was established in 2018. The mission of The PATCH Institute is to focus on the patient’s needs, and tailor the treatment to provide the lowest recurrence rates and fastest return to activities while having the lowest complication rates. We are committed to learning and developing the latest open, laparoscopic, and robotic-assisted techniques in hernia surgery. We are committed to research and tracking our outcomes. We are committed to training the next generation of surgeons. We are accredited by The Fellowship Council and graduate a fellow every year. Our Institute also includes 2 bariatric surgeons who can perform weight loss surgery in patients where there is a medical indication for weight loss prior to hernia surgery. We established the only Bariatric Center of Excellence in the East Bay in 2004, with life changing results already witnessed in over two thousand bariatric patients.