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I recently had an outpatient surgery scheduled and was going to have Friend A accompany me. I called to tell her the details, and that she would need to stay there the whole time, and she started backpedaling. She had errands she wanted to run while I was under.
Luckily Friend B was available and drove me. Good thing, they were VERY strict - took down her vehicle description and license plate #, there was one driveway in and out of the parking area, which they had eyes on.
I had been at that same OPS center with DH when he had a procedure, and witnessed an intense exchange when a woman came in with two guys, one of them had driven her there and the other was going to drive her home, but neither could stay there. The staff was NOT having it. I forget how it wound up, it was years ago.
I'd think the strictly enforced requirements for a designated person ( friend, neighbor, vetted Uber driver, etc). to stay in the surgery center for the entire time a patient's procedure, till the patient is ready to leave, could make it much harder for a patient looking mainly for transportation to find someone willing or able to accomodate these additional requirements. Could be a real problem in communities where there are a lot of elderly people ( maybe not so elderly as well) who don't have anyone immediately available to do that for them and have to go looking for someone who can and is willing.
I have not seen any surgery centers around here ( or elsewhere, at least in Florida) that require anything beyond the name and contact information of "the person who's going to drive you home" and there doesn't seem to be any requirement for such a person to remain on site during the surgery. I might have thought that Covid restrictions in 2020 where they wouldn't let anyone wait in the building with patients ( they only suspended elective procedures for a short time in 2020 here in Florida) might have been continued past those restrictions so people did not have to wait) but as I recall this was always the policy in the surgery centers I have seen. Makes me think perhaps with so many "alone" seniors around the policy is set to make it easier for these people get the transportation they need?
I recall driving my mother and her then current boyfriend to and from a colonoscopy ( he was having it, she didn't want to drive but wanted to accompany him, so as her designated "steppinfetchit, I drove them to the center- this was around 2013). But I didn't wait in the center, mainly because I was incubating a lousy, crappy cold and didnt want to spread it inside, so I went shopping for their lunch and the center called me, I came back, picked them both up and took them home. I didn't stay with them.
Others have mentioned surgery center requirements for "designated drivers" to stay there for the duration, so it seems to be a thing in some areas. I might wonder at their going so far as to getting car descriptions and and license numbers, but perhaps they had had bad experiences with the designated drivers who took off, didn't come back and left the center high and dry with stranded patients. That'd be my guess,, as I can't see that having a driver waiting in the center would contribute to an improvement in patient care, or contribute to anything except the center's policy to toss their patients out as soon as possible after their procedures.
So they...what? Cancelled her procedure?? And then (presumably) still charged her as they do when you miss an appointment without giving 24 hours' notice??? I would have a big problem with that...
I'm not sure if that's how it happens, but they typically won't even schedule surgery until and unless you sign something about meeting their requirements for transportation (which are typically set at the state level and nothing the clinic has any control over). I wouldn't blame them for charging someone who lied about it. Why should they lose money just because someone lies?
Last edited by Metlakatla; 07-08-2022 at 11:02 PM..
I'm not sure if that's how it happens, but they typically won't even schedule surgery until and unless you sign something about meeting their requirements for transportation (which are typically set at the state level and nothing the clinic has any control over). I wouldn't blame them for charging someone who lied about it. Why should they lose money just because someone lies?
Who could they prove someone lied? Maybe their ride home couldn't make it at the last minute. Are they going to interrogate that person; hook him/her up to a polygraph (not that it's reliable or admissible in court)?
Regarding the requirement of the driver staying throughout the procedure……I got the impression they didn’t want my husband to leave because they wanted him there when I was ready to go home. It was a short procedure.
When he had his cataract surgery in the midst of Covid and I had to wait in the parking lot, I did leave and got a fast food breakfast. There were no instructions against that.
We have never required the ride to remain onsite…
For about 18 months only the patient was permitted entry as lobby and waiting room closed.
Outpatient Centers don’t generally have a lot of unused space…
We have an 6 bed recovery room for 6 operating rooms and 40 procedures daily.
We also have two additional 23 hour private rooms so we are maxed at 8 beds for 40 surgeries.
Everything would come to a halt if we had to have 40 beds for 40 surgeries…
The two surgery centers I've used around here ( a general outpatient surgical center and an opthalmology only surgical center attached to an eye clinic) have fairly spacious waiting areas, though neither one requires that family members or other designated drivers remain there while the patient is having surgery. One of the centers offers coffee and fixings for those waiting for patients.
These surgery centers didn't allow family members/designated drivers to remain onsite pretty much all of 2020, and while they do so now, they require those in the waiting room ( as well as the patients) to wear masks, and seem to have scheduled things to ensure as few people around the waiting room and recovery rooms as possible.
Far as I know neither of these centers has 23 hour rooms or any other provisions for overnight stays. In the event a patient needed overnight care or monitoring there they would be transferred to one of the local hospitals- one of the questions asked of patients is a preference for which hospital it would be in the event that happened.
I can see with the number of available ORs, recovery rooms and workload, your surgery center ( as well as most of them) would need to move patients in and out of the centers as soon as possible. Having them backed up due to rides home not showing up wouldn't be a good idea.
Regarding the requirement of the driver staying throughout the procedure……I got the impression they didn’t want my husband to leave because they wanted him there when I was ready to go home. It was a short procedure.
When he had his cataract surgery in the midst of Covid and I had to wait in the parking lot, I did leave and got a fast food breakfast. There were no instructions against that.
IN my experience they give the driver an approximate length of time until the patient is expected to be ready to go. The timeframe gives the driver an idea of where they might go, and what they could do to be available to pick up the person when they're finished.
Last week a patient said her uncle who is an Uber driver is taking her home... fine and dandy.
PACU RN calls uncle and said your niece will be ready in 30 minutes. The driver said I don't have a niece???
The nurse said you don't have a niece getting Cataract surgery today and the driver said oh that niece... what is your address...?
And so it goes...
So how did they handle this?
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