Surgical Patients and Visitors

Preparing for Surgery

As you prepare for surgery, it is important that you follow all pre-operative instructions provided by your doctor, as well as the general information found in the Guide to Having Surgery (linked below). Your surgery may be postponed if these guidelines are not followed. If you have additional questions regarding your procedure, please call your surgeon’s office.

Guide to Having Surgery - English >

Guide to Having Surgery - Spanish >

Real-time Surgical Updates

You will be able to easily track the progress of your loved one through surgery and recovery using Perioperative Tracking.

To protect privacy, patient names are replaced with case numbers, which are assigned per patient and based on the location of their surgery. Your loved one’s case number will be provided to you. Perioperative Tracking monitors are located in the following locations:

• Methodist Hospital: Inpatient and Outpatient Surgery waiting rooms, Café 8303 and the coffee shop.
• Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital: First floor waiting area inside the East entrance.
• Methodist Women's Hospital: The first floor dining area and the second floor surgery waiting area.

If you have questions or concerns during your time with us, please don’t hesitate to ask for information or assistance from the surgery waiting area receptionist, volunteer or nurse liaison. After hours, call the Methodist Hospital operator by dialing ‘0’ on an in-house hospital phone and ask for the House Supervisor.

Blood Conservation

If you have a desire to reduce or limit the use of donor blood during your surgical procedure, please visit our page on Blood Conservation.

FIRSTeam

Dial 4-3-9-9-9 for immediate help for a patient

Methodist Hospital is committed to patient safety. We believe in teamwork and ask that you partner with us to help keep your loved one safe.

The team of family, patient and staff

Methodist Hospital’s FIRSTeam (Family Initiated Rapid Response Safety Team) is a safety tool for patients, families and visitors.

Anyone can summon help

This program allows patients, relatives, friends and acquaintances to summon the FIRSTeam if the patient needs immediate, emergency medical attention simply by dialing 4-3-9-9-9 on the house telephone.

Specialized staff, including a critical care nurse, a respiratory therapist and a supervisor, trained in emergency care will respond promptly.