Pre Op Visits

One of the important aspect of having a primary care in your care team is reduction of risk of adverse events during and after the surgeries.  We provide Pre Op Visits to our patients approximately three to four weeks before the planned date of the surgery. 

It is very important to have this Pre-Op visit with your primary care. We monitor 14 different subsystems and hence are well equipped to asses the risk and then mitigate it through medicine changes, control of lab levels and management of the care plan post surgery.

What happens before the Pre Op?

1. Please book an appointment that is at least three weeks prior to your surgery.
2. Ask your surgeon to send a pre-op request to us (your primary care) ; This request can specify the procedure planned and labs expected.
3. Show up for your Pre-Op appointment. Please let the front office know you are here for the Pre-Op. Do not discuss your other problems during this visit.

What happens during your Pre Op visit?

1. Your primary care physician will assess the procedure planned and agree for the procedure. You can discuss about the procedure and risk and benefits.
2. Our office will do certain labs as requested by the surgeon or your primary care physician
3. We may also send additional referrals if your condition warrants
4. We collect all the information from lab, imaging and consults and your primary care physician assesses if procedure is safe given your condition. Your physician communicates her decision along with risk score for the surgery (calculated if enough data is available)
5. We also make you read our surgery check list so that you can plan a safer surgery and a safer care giving at home
6. You also book an appointment to see us after your surgery (Post Op Visit)

If you need any additional care giver help, we will provide you signed orders so that you can set up additional care (home health, physical therapy) 

Why Pre Op should be done at your primary care ?

1. Your primary care physician knows more about your other conditions than the surgeon who is operating.
2. Your surgeon's office knows less about what primary care is. 
3. Certain medications need to be stopped for adverse events during surgery. They need to be restarted after the surgery. 
4. After the surgery you need more primary care intervention to ensure healing. 
5. Hospital discharges you to a primary care and we need to be prepared to ensure care coordination that may be required.

Can I discuss my regular chronic conditions during pre-op visit?

1. You must not discuss your chronic conditions during your pre-op. Your pre-op is a special appointment to focus on the procedure planned and get risk mitigation done for the procedure.
2. Typically your provider has to spend half an hour going over your procedure plan and make suggestions to reduce the risk. 
3. By keeping your pre -op focused on pre-op you are making sure your procedure has no adverse effects.
4. Pre-op visits also need a coordination work to get your imaging, lab work, EKG etc. So there is hardly any time left to address anything else. 

How can I improve my pre-op visit?

1. Schedule your pre-op from the link below approximately 3 weeks before surgery.
2. At the time of scheduling please have your surgeon write you note describing what procedure is planned and what surgeon wants done.
3. Please upload this note in your visit. When you book appointment online and specify you need a pre-op you will be asked to provide surgeon's request.