Thank You for Choosing QMG Surgery Center

We under­stand prepar­ing for surgery can be stress­ful. As you get ready for your pro­ce­dure, you may have many ques­tions. Please dis­cuss any con­cerns or ques­tions you have with your doc­tors or your health­care team.

Below you’ll find some help­ful infor­ma­tion to pre­pare for your surgery or pro­ce­dure. Between three to five days before your surgery or pro­ce­dure, you’ll receive a screen­ing phone call from our nurse. Our nurse will review your med­ical his­to­ry, remind you of spe­cif­ic prepa­ra­tions you’ll need to take, and answer any questions.

Before Your Surgery

Trans­porta­tion and Caregiver

You must have some­one, a trust care­giv­er, accom­pa­ny you after your surgery or pro­ce­dure. Please arrange to have a fam­i­ly mem­ber or trust­ed friend dri­ve you to and from the Surgery Cen­ter. Your trust­ed care­giv­er will also speak to your physi­cian about your results and care instruc­tions. This indi­vid­ual may be required to stay with you for 24 hours. Please con­firm this with your sur­geon at your pre­op­er­a­tive appointment.

Med­ica­tion

Your physi­cian may give you a pre­scrip­tion for an antibi­ot­ic before your surgery to help pre­vent infec­tion. You may also be pre­scribed med­ica­tion to help man­age pain after surgery. Be sure to fill any pre­scrip­tions before surgery and fol­low direc­tions as prescribed.

Food, Drink, and Tobacco

Your physi­cian will let you know how long you should go with­out eat­ing or drink­ing before your surgery. Do not drink alco­hol or use tobac­co for at least 24 hours before your surgery.

Pedi­atric Patients and Oth­er Chil­dren in the Home

A legal guardian must be in the Surgery Cen­ter at all times for chil­dren. If you have young chil­dren at home for whom you nor­mal­ly care for, plan for some­one else to care for them for at least the first 24 hours fol­low­ing your surgery or their sibling’s surgery.

Advanced Direc­tive Notice

In an advance direc­tive (or med­ical pow­er of attor­ney), the patient may pro­vide guid­ance as to his/​her wish­es in cer­tain sit­u­a­tions, or may del­e­gate deci­sion mak­ing to anoth­er indi­vid­ual as per­mit­ted by state law. It is the pol­i­cy of this facil­i­ty to ini­ti­ate resus­ci­ta­tive mea­sures when any life-threat­en­ing sit­u­a­tion aris­es and treat patients with life sus­tain­ing mea­sures and pre­pare patients for imme­di­ate trans­fer to an acute care hos­pi­tal for fur­ther diag­nos­tic eval­u­a­tion. On trans­fer, a copy of the advance direc­tive will be sent with the patient.

Noti­fy the Surgery Cen­ter and Your Sur­geon If:

• You have an ele­vat­ed tem­per­a­ture, cough, cold, vom­it­ing, or diar­rhea between your last vis­it to the sur­geon and the day of your surgery.
• You sus­pect you may be pregnant.
• You are tak­ing: diet pills, aspirin, ibupro­fen, blood thin­ners, or cer­tain herbal med­i­cines. You may need to stop tak­ing these 1 – 2 weeks before your surgery. You can dis­cuss this with your sur­geon at your pre­op­er­a­tive appointment.

The Day of Your Surgery

Please make every effort to arrive on time for your appoint­ment. Our goal is to min­i­mize every patient’s wait time pri­or to surgery. Please fol­low all instruc­tions pro­vid­ed by your sur­geon at your pre-op appoint­ment. Below you will find some help­ful reminders and information.

Before You Arrive at the Surgery Center

• Do not eat or drink after mid­night before your pro­ce­dure, except for a small sip of water with the med­ica­tions you were instruct­ed to take the day of the procedure.
• You may take a show­er or bath.
• Do not shave the area where you will have surgery. If hair needs to be removed from the oper­at­ing site, your care team will do this on the day of the surgery.
• Do not use make-up, hair spray, or toi­letries, as these may affect anes­the­sia monitoring.
• You do not need to remove nail pol­ish or arti­fi­cial cov­er­ings pri­or to your sur­gi­cal case; how­ev­er, on the day of surgery if we are unable to effec­tive­ly mon­i­tor anes­the­sia pri­or to and dur­ing the sur­gi­cal case you may be at risk of need­ing to remove pol­ish or nail cov­er­ings the day of. We will do our best to uti­lize alter­na­tive modal­i­ties dur­ing your stay with us to avoid this sit­u­a­tion from occurring.
• When brush­ing teeth, please do not swal­low or ingest any water.
• Please remove all jew­el­ry and leave all valu­ables at home.
• Wear com­fort­able, loose-fit­ting clothes, includ­ing low-heeled com­fort­able shoes. Shirts or blous­es with but­tons in front are usu­al­ly best.
• When you arrive, we will pro­vide you with a sur­gi­cal gown (if applicable).

Please bring the fol­low­ing items to the QMG Surgery Center:

• Insur­ance cards
• Driver’s license
• Medicare or med­ical-assis­tance information
• Med­ica­tion list
• Co-pay­ment, if required
• You may wear or bring your glass­es, hear­ing aids and den­tures – bring their cas­es too
• Any items pro­vid­ed by your sur­geon for post­op­er­a­tive recov­ery (e.g., bra, sling, durable med­ical equip­ment, walk­ing devices, med­ica­tions, and eye glass­es kit)
• Any notes or ques­tions you may have from your pre­op­er­a­tive screening
• Chil­dren may bring a favorite stuffed ani­mal or toy, blan­ket, elec­tron­ic enter­tain­ment device
• Par­ents of pedi­atric patients should bring a packed dia­per bag
• Your trust­ed caregiver/​driver should bring their cell phone to your surgery so they can leave the wait­ing room if time allows

At the Surgery Center

On the day of your surgery, enter through the main entrance locat­ed on the east side of the build­ing (the entrance fac­ing Pappo’s Piz­za). You will pro­ceed up the escalators/​elevators, turn east on the sec­ond floor, and check-in at recep­tion. Once you check-in for your surgery or pro­ce­dure, you will receive an ID band. Par­ents of pedi­atric patients will receive one to match their child.

Pre-Op

• A mem­ber of our health­care team will escort you and a fam­i­ly mem­ber to your pre-op room when it is available.
• Pedi­atric patients may have both par­ents in the pre-op area.
• Elder­ly patients may have their spouse and one adult child in the pre-op area.
• All oth­er patients may have one vis­i­tor in the pre-op area.

Once in the pre-op area a nurse will do a head-to-toe assess­ment including:

• Updat­ed height and weight.
• Female patients (who have start­ed their men­stru­al cycle) will stop by the restroom and pro­vide a urine spec­i­men to deter­mine if pregnant.
• Dia­bet­ic patients will receive a glu­cose check.

When Your Assess­ment is Complete

• You will be pro­vid­ed with a gown (if applic­a­ble) and a warm blanket.
• You will be asked to remove glass­es, hear­ing aids, all body pierc­ings, includ­ing those not visu­al to the eye. All jew­el­ry is removed to pre­vent elec­tri­cal burn injury.
• Your sur­geon will vis­it, mark the sur­gi­cal site, and answer any addi­tion­al ques­tions you have.
• You will meet with your anes­the­sia pro­fes­sion­al, who will pro­vide you with a brief descrip­tion of anesthesia/​sedation you will receive for your surgery or pro­ce­dure, review your health his­to­ry, and do a nerve block at this time (if applicable).
• Once ready for the oper­a­tion, a reg­is­tered nurse and the anes­the­sia pro­fes­sion­al will take you back to the pro­ce­dure or oper­at­ing room.
• Your sup­port per­son will be escort­ed back to the wait­ing room. In addi­tion to com­pli­men­ta­ry cof­fee, tea, and water, vend­ing machines with snacks and drinks are also available.
• Your sup­port per­son will be pro­vid­ed instruc­tions for the patient track­er board to view your progress in surgery.

Recov­ery & Fol­low-Up Care

Gas­troen­terol­o­gy patients will wake up in the pro­ce­dure room, then return to their pre-op room to recov­er. Your sup­port per­son will be asked to remain in your pre-op room for the entire dura­tion. A reg­is­tered nurse will mon­i­tor you, take vital signs every 15 min­utes, and pro­vide a drink and snack. All dis­charge instruc­tions and after-care edu­ca­tion will be provided.

All oth­er patients will wake up in the recov­ery room. A reg­is­tered nurse will mon­i­tor you and take vital signs every 15 min­utes. Once you are able to sit up in a chair, you will be giv­en a drink and snack and your sup­port per­son will be brought back to the recov­ery room. All dis­charge instruc­tions and after-care edu­ca­tion will be provided.

Any pain and nau­sea expe­ri­enced imme­di­ate­ly after surgery will be mon­i­tored and man­aged by your recov­ery nurse pri­or to discharge.

Your inci­sion (if you received one) will be cleaned and dressed (ban­daged) after surgery. Care for your inci­sion will be reviewed by your nurse before discharge.

Leav­ing the Surgery Center

• You will receive a fold­er will infor­ma­tion spe­cif­ic to your surgery and all after-care edu­ca­tion that your nurse reviews with you.
• Fol­low­ing your pro­ce­dure or surgery, you will be escort­ed by a staff mem­ber to the south entrance to leave through a pri­vate exit. Your sup­port per­son will be able to dri­ve up to the door to assist you into the vehicle.
• If biop­sies were tak­en, expect results to be called or mailed with­in 10 – 14 days. If you do not receive results in that time­frame, please call your physician.

GAS­TROEN­TEROL­O­GY PATIENTS should noti­fy their physi­cian if they expe­ri­ence any of the following:

• Fever of 100˚ F or higher
• Vom­it­ing blood, expe­ri­ence chest pain, tight­ness, or have dif­fi­cul­ty swallowing
• Severe abdom­i­nal (bel­ly) pain
• Exces­sive bleed­ing from the rec­tum (more than a small amount on the tis­sue or paper in the toi­let bowl)
• Notice any red­ness, heat, swelling, or red streaks at the IV site

ALL OTH­ER SURGERY PATIENTS should noti­fy their physi­cian if they expe­ri­ence any of the following:

• Fever of 100˚ F or higher
• Red­ness, swelling, or ten­der­ness at sur­gi­cal or IV site
• Pus or foul odor from the sur­gi­cal site(s)
• Per­sis­tent, increas­ing pain not relieved by medication
• Per­sis­tent, increas­ing nau­sea or vom­it­ing after 24 hours
• Exces­sive drainage or bleed­ing from the sur­gi­cal site(s)

Fol­low-Up Care

Most fol­low-up appoint­ments will be made dur­ing your pre­op­er­a­tive appoint­ment; how­ev­er, if it was not, one will be sched­uled by your dis­charge nurse. You will have a fol­low-up appoint­ment not­ed on your dis­charge paperwork.

You will receive a fol­low-up phone call from a surgery cen­ter nurse with­in three days of dis­charge to dis­cuss your vis­it, any con­cerns, or ques­tions you may have. You may call your surgeon’s office at any time for ques­tions and/​or con­cerns. In the event of an emer­gency, please call 911.

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