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Help your healthcare professional help you. Ask your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist about your healthcare.
What Can You Do?The following tips help make your care safe and lead to the results you want.
To view other sections, click on one of these:
Before the Surgery - Review with your healthcare givers:
You, your doctor, and your surgeon all agree on exactly what will be done.
- How the site is marked to make sure that surgery is done on the correct area.
- The type of anesthesia that will be used.
- Any allergies you may have.
- Get information on how you can expect to feel after the surgery is performed.Ask your doctor to explain:
- Why you need to have surgery. There are many reasons to have surgery: to relieve or prevent pain, reduce a symptom of a problem, improve the way your body functions, or even save your life. Make sure you understand how the operation your doctor has suggested will improve your medical condition.
- What kind of operation he or she is recommending. Ask your surgeon to explain the surgery and how it is done. Your surgeon can draw a picture or a diagram and explain the steps involved in the surgery. Ask if there is more than one way of doing the operation. For example, some operations that once required large incisions now can be performed using much smaller incisions. For some surgeries you need to stay in the hospital for 1 day or longer, but for others it is possible for you go home on the same day.
- If there are alternatives to surgery. Depending on your condition, surgery may not be the only answer to a medical problem. Medicines or treatments, such as special exercises or changes in diet, could give you the same—or even better—results as surgery.
- The benefits of the operation. Ask your surgeon to explain what you will gain by having the operation. If you need a hip replacement, for example, you may be able to walk without pain after the surgery. Ask how long the benefits will last. In some cases, you may need another operation after a short time for the benefits to continue. In other cases, the benefits of the surgery may last your lifetime.
- The risks of the operation. All operations have some risk. That's why it is important to balance the benefits of the operation with the risk of complications or side effects. Typical complications include infection, too much bleeding, accidental injury, or reaction to anesthesia. Ask your doctor to explain what side effects you might have, such as swelling or soreness around the incision. Find out what steps the doctors and nurses will take to control any pain you may feel after surgery.
- What will happen if you don't have this operation. Based on what you learn about the benefits and the risks of the operation, you may decide not to have it. Ask your surgeon what you stand to lose—or gain—by not having the operation now. Will you be in more pain in the future? Could your condition get worse? Could the condition get better on its own?
- How much the operation will cost. Call your health insurance company before you have the operation. Even with insurance, there may be costs that you will have to pay, depending on the hospital and surgeon you use. You will also get a bill from the hospital for your care and from the other doctors who took care of you during your hospital stay. If you don't have health insurance, talk to the hospital's billing staff and your surgeon to see if you can get a discount on the cost of the operation.
After the Surgery:
- It would be helpful to have a family member or friend stay with you--they can do things like
answer the telephone so you can sleep
- Ask for written instructions, from your doctor and/or nurse, that you can read when you go home
- Talk with your doctor or nurse to make sure you understand what you need to do
- Find out when you are to follow up or make an appointment with the doctor after a hospital stayResources and links for more information
- Questions to ask your doctor or surgeon
- Tips for planning your surgerySource: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)