Surgical Services

• SOMC Same Day Surgery (SDS) offers a type of surgery that allows patients to return home the same day as their surgery.
• The SDS lobby is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, however the SDS lobby is staffed from 5:30 am to 6:30 pm Monday-Friday .
• You will be greeted by the lobby liaison or a volunteer. Please let him or her know of your arrival.
• If there is no one at the lobby desk at the time of your arrival, please pick up the receiver of the phone on the lobby desk ledge. It will connect you to the SDS Nurses’ Station.
• Remember to check in with the liaison to receive a number in order for your family to track your location on the lobby-tracking monitor.  
  You may provide a phone number so your family will receive text or phone call updates and to be contacted to meet with the physician after your procedure.
• Once you are checked into the lobby, there may be a short wait while the SDS staff gets your chart ready.
• If you have been waiting to go to your SDS room longer than 15 minutes, please notify SDS personnel again of your arrival.
• For the comfort and privacy of all patients, SDS staff asks that you limit visitors to only two at a time. Visitors may be asked to leave the room for short periods during the preparation period.

• Visitors may accompany the surgical transporter when the patient is transferred to the surgery holding area. The transporter will give you directions to go to the Surgery Waiting Area that is located in the SDS area.
• The lobby is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is staffed from 6:30am–9:30pm Monday through Friday.
• Go to the main desk in the lobby area and the liaison will give you a beeper and patient tracking number. If there is no one at the desk, please follow the instructions on the sign at the desk.
• While the procedure is in progress, you may track the area the patient is presently in by using the tracking number.
• When the surgery is complete, your beeper will vibrate and show a “#1.” That indicates you should return to the lobby area and contact the liaison. At this time the surgeon may talk with you regarding the procedure performed. Please keep your pager until the patient is transferred to his or her room.
• You may return your pager to the liaison or PACU staff when you meet them in the patient’s room.

• As an emergency patient, your family member may be having surgery after normal scheduled surgery hours.
• To wait for your family member and to talk to the surgery staff, please go to the SDS Surgery Waiting Room, located just outside the SDS. To get there, please take the elevator from the Emergency Room to the first floor. Please wait in this area.
• The surgeon will come to this area when the surgery is complete to talk with you.
• If you are assigned a pager, it will vibrate and show a “#1” to indicate the surgeon will talk with you regarding the procedure.
• Please call from the phone on the desk if your pager shows a 4-digit number to speak to a PACU nurse.
• Please answer the phone as this is the way we will communicate with you.
• The patient may either return to the Emergency Room or be admitted to a hospital bed. You will be updated by the doctor and staff when the patient is ready to return to the designated area.

• It is our mission while in the operating room to assure the safety and confidentiality of the patient. A specific operating room team has been assigned to your loved one. This team consists of an anesthesia provider, a registered nurse and a surgical technician, as well as any additional staff that may be required for the scheduled procedure.
• Once the patient has been transported to surgery, he or she may be placed in pre-op holding for a short interval so that the OR nurse and/or anesthesia provider can perform an immediate pre-op assessment of the patient.
• The patient is then taken into the operating room suite and is prepared for anesthesia and the procedure to begin.
• Prior to the end of the procedure, you may be notified by beeper to return to the lobby waiting area for the surgeon to speak with you when he finishes. Please keep in mind that every patient is unique, and procedure times may vary.
• There may be a delay between the time the surgeon speaks with you and the noted arrival of the patient in the PACU (Recovery Room area). This time lapse allows for transfer of the patient from the operating room table to the transport cart to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit.
• Please feel free to inquire at the lobby desk as to the progress of your loved one’s procedure and we will attempt to provide that information to you. 

The length of stay in PACU is determined by many factors such as the type of procedure, the patient's response, and recovery room bed availability.

• After the physician speaks with you, please remain in the lobby. A PACU nurse will call to update you after the initial assessment. If you have a pager the PACU staff will communicate with you via pager and give you a 4-digit number to call for an update.
• Should a prolonged stay in PACU be necessary, every effort will be made to keep you informed and a line of communication open as possible. 
• If it is after hours, please answer the phone on the desk, as this is a way PACU may communicate with you.