Surgery Process

At Hamilton Medical Center, you are our number one priority.

When a physician’s office calls us to schedule a patient’s surgery, our schedulers and staff members begin the development of your individualized plan of care.

Preparing for Surgery

Preparations for surgery depend on your diagnosis. Your physician will discuss with you how to prepare for your surgery.

You can expect to journey through several phases of the surgery process at Hamilton Medical Center. In order to prepare you for each, below are some general instructions for most surgical procedures:

• Stop drinking and eating for a certain period of time before the time of surgery
• Bathe or clean the area to be operated on
• Do not wear makeup the day of surgery
• Do not wear nail polish
• Leave valuables and jewelry at home
• Advise the medical staff of dentures or other prosthetic devices you may be wearing

 

Often, to make your experience more comfortable and efficient, we advise patients to bring the following:

• Loose-fitting clothes to wear
• All medications in their original bottles
• Social Security card number
• Insurance information
• Medicare or Medicaid card

 

Pre-admission Testing: After being scheduled for surgery, patients are scheduled for pre-admissions testing. After checking in at Admissions during your scheduled appointment time, nurses will bring you into a private testing room to gather information about your health history, and complete any pre-operative testing ordered by your surgeon. You will meet with an anesthesia provider and receive specific instructions regarding your day of surgery.  Please bring all bottles of medication that have been prescribed by your physicians to this appointment.

Surgical Care (Pre-op): Patients arrive at specified time, typically two (2) hours prior to the surgical procedure. After checking in at Admissions, you will be escorted to the surgery waiting area, and to a private surgical care waiting room. Each patient has a pre-operative nurse who is specially trained for surgical procedures, and will aid you in preparing for your surgery all while keeping you comfortable while you wait. Your anesthesiologist and surgeon will visit you in your pre-operative room, prior to your procedure, and answer any questions you might have. At your scheduled surgery time, a team of Operating Room personnel will transport you comfortably on your pre-operative bed into the Surgical Suite, while your family and loved ones wait restfully in our surgery waiting area.

Operating Room: While your surgical procedure is taking place, your family and loved ones will wait in the surgery waiting area. Family will be updated of the surgery procedure status every hour, until the conclusion of your surgical procedure. Upon completion of your procedure a surgeon will inform your family and loved ones of the procedures’ outcomes.

Recovery Room: Following your procedure, you will receive one-on-one care in Hamilton’s Post-Anesthesia Care Unit by highly trained critical care nurses until you are awake. Throughout your stay in the recovery room, your family will be updated of your post-surgical status by your recovery room nurse. You will be monitored closely during your recovery and when it is safe for you to be transported; you will be escorted by a nurse to either your post-operative outpatient room or your hospital room.

Post-Perioperative Recovery: When your first phase of recovery has been completed, if you are having an outpatient procedure, you will return to your private room in the pre-operative holding area where you will be monitored prior to going home. At the completion of your visit, you will receive discharge instructions for your individualized post-operative care.  Nurses will answer any questions you might have and then personally escort you to your transportation home.