Day of Surgery

The day before your procedure, operating room personnel will call you between 3 – 6 pm to tell you what time you need to arrive for your surgery. If you do not hear from them, please call 609-652-3430 (Mainland Campus) or 609-441-8030 (City Campus).

Directions

Know which campus to go to for your surgery — click below for directions. When you arrive, proceed to the Same Day Surgery Unit.

• Do not eat anything after midnight.
• Increase your fluid intake the day before surgery.
• You are encouraged to drink Gatorade (or any sports drink) the evening prior to surgery and the morning of surgery up to 2 hours before your arrival time.
• You can have clear liquids up to 2 hours prior to your procedure (water, apple juice or coffee without milk products).
• Be sure to shower with CHG (antiseptic) soap as instructed.

On the day of surgery:

• Wear loose, comfortable clothing.
• Bring your case if you wear contacts or eyeglasses. You will need to remove them for the procedure.
• Do not wear makeup or nail polish.
• Do not wear or bring jewelry. Remove all body piercings.
• Leave all valuables at home.

At AtlantiCare, your safety is our top priority. The doctors and nurses take many steps to ensure a safe and successful procedure. You, as the patient, can play a vital role in making your care safe by becoming an active, involved and informed member of your healthcare team. It helps if you know what to expect.

Patient Identification

Part of patient safety is ensuring the correct surgery is done on the correct person. Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff have checklists and procedures they must follow. Your cooperation helps them ensure your safety.

• If you are given a consent form to sign the day of surgery, be sure ALL of the information on the form is correct.
• You will be given an ID bracelet. Double-check to be sure that the information on this bracelet is correct.
• Staff will ask you to state your name, birth date, surgery to be done and what part of the body will be operated on. They will check this information against your ID bracelet. They will also ask you to point to the part of the body that will be operated on.
• For your safety, you will be asked these and other questions several times prior to your procedure by different members of your care team.

Site Marking

In preparation for your procedure, your surgeon or physician may mark the area where the procedure will be performed. The mark should not rub off easily. If it does, please advise a nurse. Do not mark parts of your body that will not be operated on.

Just before surgery begins, everyone in the operating room will pause. They will do a final check to ensure that you are the correct patient and they are doing the correct procedure on the correct body part.

Your surgeon and anesthesiologist will determine what’s best for you, taking into account any allergies you may have.

Most joint replacement patients receive spinal anesthesia. You may stay awake, or your physician may give you a sedative, but you won’t see or feel the actual surgery. “Conscious sedation” describes a semi-conscious state that allows you to be comfortable and pain-free, yet aware of what’s happening, compared with deep sedation where you sleep throughout the procedure and have little or no memory of what happened to you.

At AtlantiCare, we are committed to eliminating your pain after surgery as much as possible; in fact, our pain management process starts before you even enter the operating room.

All pain medications are prescribed by your surgeon. We do everything to ensure that your pain is well managed and carefully controlled. We understand that all patients are different, so we use a variety of pain management methods, including IV or oral pain-relieving medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, mobilization, pain patches and more to keep you comfortable.