Everything for your surgery day - patients & family
 |
WE aim to provide you with the most information possible to better you overall care. Take some time to review the valuable information below for patients and family.
 Patient Brochure
|
Patients & Family - Resources for your surgery
Patient Forms
Discharge Instructions Following Anesthesia
Discharge Instructions Following Anesthesia (Pediatrics)
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Discharge Instructions
Patient Brochure
Forms require free Adobe Reader - click here if necessary
Scheduling Your Procedures
Your physician's office will schedule your procedure at Waverley. You do not need to come into Waverley prior to your surgery to pre-register.
Main telephone number: (650) 324-0600
Back To Top
Location and Parking
Waverley is located at: 400 Forest Ave. in Palo Alto.
Main telephone number: (650) 324-0600
Parking
A parking structure is available under the surgery center building. You can access the valet parking attendant on Waverley Street between Forest Avenue and Homer Avenue. There is also a patient drop-off and loading zone at the surgery center entrance on Forest Avenue.
Click here to directions and a detailed map to our center
Back To Top
Preparing for the Day of Surgery
You may receive a preoperative phone call from one of our Registered Nurses 1-4 days before your scheduled surgery. The nurse will review your health history with you and answer any questions you have. If you are having a routine endoscopy, colonoscopy or pain procedure/injection you will not receive a phone call unless you are 65 years or older. If you have not heard from our staff, please contact us at (650) 324-0600 with any questions you would like answered prior to your surgery.
It is essential to your health and the success of your surgery that you follow these instructions. Please read them carefully and contact usif there is you don't understand.
DO NOT EAT OR DRINK ANYTHING 8 HOURS PRIOR TO YOUR SURGERY. This includes water, mints, chewing gum, or lozenges. Your stomach must be completely empty to avoid any anesthesia complications. You should not smoke after midnight the night before surgery.
Call your physician immediately if you develop a cold, cough, fever or skin infection that might interfere with the surgical area.
Back To Top
On the Day of your Surgery
- Plan to arrive at Waverley one hour prior to your scheduled surgery time unless specifically instructed differently.
- Do not use lotion, oils, or perfume after bathing. Remove nail polish if you are having hand or foot surgery.
- Wear loose, comfortable clothing that can accommodate large dressings and tender surgery sites.
- Wear flat comfortable shoes.
- Leave valuables such as jewelry, watches and money at home (unless you have been contacted to bring a payment). The surgery center cannot be responsible for them during your stay.
- Bring hearing aids, glasses and case, containers for contact lenses and denture case with you.
- Please bring a list of your current medications and dosages with you.
- You may experience lightheadedness, dizziness or sleepiness after anesthesia. So please arrange for a family member or friend to drive you home. No surgical patient will be allowed to leave the facility without an accompanying adult. Your accompanying adult is welcome to wait in our lobby or we can call him/her when you are ready to go home. We ask that you limit the number of people accompanying you to only one or two people and request that you do not bring young children unless they are supervised by a responsible adult.
- For pediatric patients, we ask that a parent remain in the building at all times until the surgery is completed. Once the procedure is completed and the child is awakening in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit, a parent will be allowed to visit him/her for comfort measures as appropriate.
- If you receive General Anesthesia, you must have someone stay with you at your home for 24 hours.
- We ask that you and your family not use cell phones in the facility to avoid disrupting other families.
- Be sure to bring your insurance card. If any payment is necessary, bring a check, major credit card or cash to pay your fee.
- If you are a patient under 18 years of age, you must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
Back To Top
Day of Surgery
Registration Desk/Lobby
At the registration desk, the admitting clerk will request your insurance card for billing purposes. After registering, please wait in our lobby until the nursing staff welcomes you into the preoperative area.
Admission to Preoperative Unit
Once in our preoperative room, you will be provided with a gown, robe and slippers. You may be asked to remove contact lenses, dentures, jewelry, hairpieces and prosthesis before going into the operating room. Your clothes will be safely stored and returned as you prepare for discharge.
A nurse will take your vital signs, pulse, temperature, respiration and blood pressure and ask you about your health history including whether you have any allergies. You will initial the site of surgery. The nurse or member of the surgical team will physically mark the area or location of your surgery as a matter of protocol.
The anesthesiologist will meet with your before you go into the operating room. The anesthesiologist will review your medical history, discuss your anesthesia plan and answer any anesthesia related questions. At this time, the anesthesiologist or nurse will start an intravenous (IV) line. Should you have eaten prior to surgery, your procedure will be cancelled and rescheduled for another day.
If you are scheduled for a local anesthesia, the services of the anesthesiologist are not necessary. However, the nursing staff will start an IV line.
You will be asked the same questions by multiple staff members. Certain key questions such as what procedure you will have, what you are allergic to and if you ate any food after midnight are critical to your safety. This redundancy is part of our safety protocols, so please do not be annoyed.
You will be asked to wait in our preoperative unit until the operating room in which your procedure is scheduled is ready for you. Note that patients are not taken in order of arrival for their surgery; rather, they are scheduled in specific operating rooms that are equipped for the type of surgery scheduled. It is not unusual for a patient who arrives after you to be taken into surgery before you.
Occasionally, unavoidable delays occur. Either an urgent case is put ahead of yours or the patients' surgery before yours lasted longer than anticipated. We appreciate your understanding when there is a delay.
The Operating Room
When your surgeon and the surgical team are ready for you, you will be escorted to the operating room by a nurse. You will be placed on the operating room table and positioned to ensure comfort and safety.
In the operating room, there are bright lights, instruments, equipment and an appropriately sterile environment. Operating room staff wears face masks when they enter the operating room to maintain a sterile environment. This can be a frightening and scary environment; however, be assured that you are in excellent, competent hands. The anesthesiologist will apply the necessary monitoring apparatus so that you will be monitored throughout your procedure.
Back To Top
Anesthesia
Anesthesia keeps you pain free during surgery. It can cause you to lose feeling or sensation during the operation with or without loss of consciousness. Your physician and your anesthesiologist will discuss the type of anesthesia that is appropriate for your surgery.
Types of Anesthesia
Local Anesthesia:
Patients remain awake, but the part of your body that will be operated on is numb to pain. This loss- of- pain sensation is produced when the physician injects the area to be treated with numbing medication.
Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC)
The patient will be given pain medication and/or a sedative, in conjunction with a local anesthetic, to keep you comfortable during the procedure. Patients often recover quickly from this type of anesthesia.
Conscious Sedation
Procedures such as colonoscopies and upper gastrointestinal endoscopies require conscious sedation. A registered nurse administers intravenous sedation, under the direction of your physician. Vital signs are monitored throughout the sedation because the amnesic properties of the intravenous drugs, most patients have little recall of the events during the procedure.
Nerve Blocks
Nerve Blocks are a type of regional anesthesia most commonly used to numb a single extremity such as one arm or one leg. You may also receive sedatives and/or pain medications to ease your anxiety. These medications do not cause unconsciousness but may leave you with little or no memory of the procedure.
General Anesthesia
Patients are asleep and their whole bodies are made unaware of pain. Anesthesia is given by intravenous injection of medications and inhalation of anesthetic gases. Patients may have a breathing tube inserted during the procedure to assist patients breathing placed after the patients asleep and removed before he/she awake.
Common Side Effects of Anesthesia
Depending on the type of anesthesia you receive, you may experience a sore throat, mild nausea, headache, drowsiness and or fatigue after your procedure. Some patients do not experience any side effects. Talk to your anesthesiologist about what to expect.
Back To Top
After Surgery
Immediately after surgery, you will be moved to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) where you will be carefully monitored by members of our nursing and anesthesia staff andl your physician. Recovery time ranges from 20 minutes to a few hours. Your vital signs will be continuously monitored and medications (for relief of pain, anxiety or nausea) may be administered. When you first wake up, you may have an oxygen mask over your nose or mouth and a finger cover monitoring your blood oxygenation.
Your time in the PACU will vary depending on both how quickly your pain is controlled and how quickly you feel ready to be discharged home. You will be asked to rate your pain on a scale of 1-10- 10 being the highest. You will be discharged home when you are reasonably comfortable, free of nausea, able to drink small amounts of fluids and possibly tolerate crackers. You will be given pain medications until you feel the pain is controlled enough for discharge.
Your belongings will be returned and the nurse will review discharge instructions. Instructions will include information on wound care, bathing and activity restrictions, diet, follow-up appointment plans, signs to look for and what to report to your physician and your physician's emergency contact information. You will receive a copy of the discharge instructions for your reference at home and our staff will escort you to your car. The quicker you are able to become mobile and return to your home environment, the more successful your recovery from surgery will be.
If you have any questions, we encourage you to call the surgery center.
Back To Top
Recovering at Home
It has been well documented that patientsrecover most sucessfully from surgical procedures if they can quickly become mobile and return to home environment. Therefore it is our goal to return you home as soon as you meet our discharge criteria.
- We recommend that you have a family member or friend stay with you for the first 24 hours after surgery.
- Contact your physician's office if you experience any problems or difficulties.
- Do not drink any alcoholic beverages for 24 hours following surgery.
- Follow your physician's post-operative instructions regarding diet, medications, rest, return visit and return to normal activities.
- Most patients will receive a post-op telephone call from a staff member within a couple of days following the procedure so that we can ensure they are on the road to recovery. Please be sure to leave a number where you can be reached.
- Do not drive or operate machinery for 24-48 hours following surgery.
Back To Top
Managing Post Operative Discomfort
Everyone experiences pain differently. Most patients experience some discomfort after surgery, depending on the type of procedure. We recommend that you speak with your physician prior to surgery about the pain control method that would work best for you.
Patients are often comfortable when leaving the surgery center and do not think they will need their prescription pain pills. However, pain can increase in the post-operative period, so it is important that you fill the prescription for your pain medication.
Sometimes surgeons may use local anesthesia at the wound site to make the patient more comfortable. When the local anesthesia wears off, patients will want pain medications handy. It is much easier to control pain than try to alleviate it with more medication once you are very uncomfortable.
Take pain relief drugs when pain first begins and take the pain medication as prescribed every 4-6 hours with food to avoid an upset stomach. Consistent narcotic use every 4 hours will cause constipation. Increase your water, fruit and fiber consumption. As time goes by, you will find you need less medication and it is easier to manage your pain. . If the pain medication prescribed is ineffective, please contact your physician.
Switch to non-narcotic medications when possible. Tylenol and ibuprofen are excellent non-addictive medications for pain management.
Do not drive as long when taking narcotic- type medications. You should also refrain from any alcohol consumption while on narcotics.
Back To Top
When to Call your Physician or Seek Medical Care
Either your physician or your physician's staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In an emergency, call 911.
Call your physician for any of the following:
- Temperature of 101 degrees or higher, and/or chills
- Nausea and vomiting that lasts more than 24 hours
- Increasing drowsiness
- Worsening pain not relieved by pain medication
- Increased swelling around the incision
- Redness around the incision that is spreading
- Bright red blood or foul-smelling discharge coming from the wound
Back To Top
Information for Family or Friends
We invite your family to stay at the surgery center while you are having surgery. Our waiting room is equipped with wireless internet coverage so your family members can work while waiting.
We also have patient education materials available that cover many of the surgical procedures performed and will help your family better understand how to care for you.
The waiting room has a computer terminal that guests may use for their convenience. Although the computer offers unrestricted usage, consider browsing the educational links that provide you with health information across many medical specialties.
Guest Services
Every visitor to Waverley Surgery Center, whether patient, family member or friend is our guest and we want your short time with us to be one that is comfortable and makes good use of your time. Your physician has chosen Waverley because you will receive individualized patient care matched by our commitment to service.
Download here
Back To Top
Home
