Before surgery: the preoperative assessment

As soon as surgery was discussed, your doctor sent a request for hospitalization in your name to the Admissions Office.

Typically, you will receive a phone call from the hospital admissions office within 30 days of your request for hospitalization. You are then asked to present yourself for a preoperative assessment, if it has not already been completed. Usually, you will be called the day before the appointment to ask you to arrive the next day.

This report must have been completed before the operation. It ensures that your physical condition allows you to undergo surgery.

It is usually not necessary to be fasting for the check-up, if you do, you will be told so when you schedule your appointment.

When you come for your preoperative check-up, you are first given a container and asked to urinate. You then meet with a nurse who performs a physical assessment, takes the necessary blood samples and asks you certain questions.

Depending on what has been specified by your attending physician or what will be required by the doctor during the preoperative work-up, you may have to undergo other tests, such as an electrocardiogram (ECG), chest x-ray, etc. You may also be referred to a specialist doctor. Remember these are precautions. The healthcare team will ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible during your operation.

The visit to the hospital for the assessment is usually quite long. The Admissions Office tries, as much as possible, to limit the wait, but for some, the visit starts at 7:30 a.m. and only ends around 2 p.m. It is therefore suggested that you bring money or a lunch, a good book or, if possible, to be accompanied by a loved one to keep you company. If you have difficulty walking, the presence of an attendant becomes even more important, because you will have to move in several areas of the hospital.

The assessment, with some exceptions, takes place at the Ambulatory Care Unit. 

Finally, if the results of your tests are all normal, the Admissions Office will contact you again to ask you to come to the hospital, often the same evening of the call, for an operation. next day.

This procedure leaves you little time to organize yourself, but it is important to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Indeed, as you must receive laxative products, which will allow you to evacuate your stool in preparation for the surgery, you must arrive early in order to be able to rest better during the night before the surgery.

We therefore suggest that you prepare a suitcase containing your personal effects in advance and provide a scenario so that someone can quickly come to your home to take care of your children, if necessary.