Keeping Your Surgery Safe Partnering With You in Infection Prevention

We always encourage you to take an active role in your care, especially before surgery.

We’ll ask you to sign a medical and surgical consent form when you arrive. Make sure everything on the form is correct. Read it carefully. It should include:

• Your name
• Your surgery

The form also will verify that you’ve:

• Talked to your doctor about the surgery and asked questions
• Discussed risks of the surgery with your doctor
• Agreed to have the surgery

For your safety, we might ask you the same questions many times, such as:

• Who are you?
• What kind of surgery are you having?
• What part of your body will be operated on?

The surgical staff will:

• Mark the surgical and procedure sites on your body with a marker. If they don’t do this, you have the right to speak up and remind them. Make sure the surgeon marks only the correct site and nowhere else.
• Take a moment to make sure they are doing the right surgery, on the right part of the body, on the right person. 
• Use a surgical safety checklist so all members of the team know the type and site of the procedure. The surgical staff will use this in the operating room.

While infections might occur as a complication of surgery, we follow strict guidelines to prevent them. Our staff will:

• Clean our hands before touching you and wear clean gloves when necessary
• Give you antibiotics based on the type of surgery you are having
• Use clippers and not razors for any hair removal
• Keep your body at a normal temperature during and after surgery

If you have questions about the skin and hair preparation process, call our pre-op office at 651-229-3918.