|
On the day of your surgery, arrive at least two hours prior to your surgery time or as instructed by the nurse.
Report to the Information Desk in the hospital lobby and you will be given directions to the POPS unit.
The patient can be accompanied by 2 adults - no children - and one must be a parent. If you are a foster parent or a grandparent and the child
is involved in the court system, please let the phone nurse know so she can let you know what papers will need to be brought with you on the day of surgery.
When you arrive on the 4th floor in the POPS unit, we will make a copy of your insurance card, weigh your child, give you pajamas for your child and a pair
of scrubs for the parent who will be going into surgery for the induction of the anesthesia (depends on the age and if allowed by the individual doctor). After
the pajamas are on, we will get the child's temperature, blood pressure, pulse and respirations and listen to their lungs. We will
review the information that you provided us during the telephone interview, or if we haven't talked to you we will get the health history.
If your child is over 10 years, over 100 pounds, or if they need IV medication before surgery, they will have an IV started before they go to surgery.
About an hour before surgery, we will give your child some medicine by mouth, and if they have an IV, some medicine in the IV.
About a half hour before the scheduled surgery time, a transport person will come and take your child to the holding area. Two adults are allowed to
accompany the child to the holding area. While you are in the holding area (where surgery personnel take care of final details before the surgery), someone
from the anesthesia department will come and talk to you about the plan of care for anesthesia for your child.
If a parent is going to be with the child for the induction of anesthesia (must be a parent and must not be pregnant), they will accompany the child into
the surgical suite. Once the child is asleep, the parent in the surgical suite will join the parent in the surgical waiting room.
After the surgery is complete, the doctor will come to the waiting room to talk to you about how the surgery went.
Once your child has started to wake up in the recovery room, you may be allowed in the recovery room (if your child is under 12 years of age or there are
special circumstances). When the child is awake enough by recovery room standards, they will be transported back to the POPS unit to finish the recovery process.
Or, if they are being admitted to Pediatrics, they will go up to the 5th floor to finish the waking up process.
Once the proper amount of time has passed (determined by the surgery performed), and your child is drinking and under reasonable pain control, they will be discharged home.
They are only allowed to leave the unit by parent's arms or by wheelchair.
You will be given a Discharge Instruction Sheet that will give you specific directions regarding the follow up care of your child. If any questions arise after you are home,
you will have your doctor's phone number and the POPS unit phone number to call for answers. Someone will be calling you a couple of days after surgery to check on how your child is doing.
Please be advised that your child may bring a favorite stuffed animal or blanket with him/her and that we have lockers available to put clothing in. We do not allow food
on the unit as the smell can upset the stomachs of some post-op patients. We do have coffee and tea available on the unit for parents and juices and Popsicles for the children.
|
