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Preop

After you are registered for your surgery and completed your medication reconciliation, you will be brought into a preoperative room. Your support person can come with you or may wait in Surgical Reception, based on your preference. These are rooms with glass doors and curtains for privacy. We will take your height and weight and you will be asked to change into a hospital gown. Your heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels will also be measured.

A nurse will insert an intravenous (IV) catheter into a vein. This catheter will be used to give you fluids and medications while you are in the hospital.

The nurse will talk with you about your surgery, will check your surgical consent and will ask you a list of questions to make sure you are ready for surgery.

In the pre-operative area, you will also meet your Anesthesia Care Team: A Physician Anesthesiologist and a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). These are the professionals who will help keep you safe and comfortable during your surgery.

You may be given medications in preop to help prevent post-op pain and nausea. Some procedures may be performed in the preop area, such as placing certain monitors and performing certain procedures, such as epidurals and nerve blocks.

Preop

A Pavilion 3 PREOP Room

 
 

Safety in the Surgical Area

There are many things we do to help keep you safe during your surgical stay. Here are a few of them:

  • In preop, if your surgery is to be done on a “side specific” site, such as your RIGHT hand or your LEFT hip, your surgeon will mark your skin at the surgery site with their initials to identify the correct site for surgery. This is done in the preop area while you are awake so you can confirm together that the correct site for surgery is being marked.
  • Before leaving preop, a “pre-procedure verification” is performed with you. This is when the preop and surgery team does their initial safety check, making sure they have the correct patient, the correct surgery, and that the correct site is marked. (Another safety check is done in the OR, before surgery starts.)
  • During your surgical stay, you will be asked many times to state your name and date of birth; prior to surgery you will also be asked multiple times what surgery you are having; your identification bracelet will be double and triple checked. These steps are designed with your safety in mind!

A word about keeping warm

In the preop area, you will receive warm fluids through your IV. Staff will also provide you with heated blankets to keep you warm, since the hospital gowns can be drafty!

Even if you tend to be warm, we ask that you use these heated blankets to keep your body covered. Surgical site infections are more likely to occur if your body temperature drops below normal, and retaining as much body heat as you can before entering the operating room helps prevent this from happening.

 

Your safety in the operating room begins long before surgery is started!

We strive to create a culture where everyone, including YOU, can speak up if there are safety concerns. Please speak up if you have questions, or if something doesn’t seem right. This culture of safety helps us provide you with the highest level of care possible.

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