Important to Know All the Requirements For Cataract Surgery So this Will Not Happen to You!
Posted , 6 users are following.
I was scheduled for Cataract Surgery on March 2, 2023. I was very well prepared and had asked many questions and read all the handouts and documents given by my HMO. There is a standard rule that you have to check into the surgery with a responsible person who will pick you up from the surgery. Since I am single and did not wish to bother friends and neighbors I hired a very efficient transport company to serve as the required responsible person and would pick me up, check in with me and pick me up after surgery.
Everything was going as planned at check in until a nurse came out and asked if I had a responsible person who would be in my home that night since I was planning on having a mild sedative IV (versed).
I SAID WHAT? ...... I had never seen this information written anywhere or heard it before after about a month of planning for this surgery!! .....I was in shock, to say the least! I had to turn around, go home and cancel the surgery!
I hope everyone who reads this will be better prepared than I was! Even if you read all of the documents and have several discussions with your doctor prior to surgery you might not have been supplied an important piece of information which could cause a CALAMITY like what happened to me today!
1 like, 36 replies
Lynda111 Spring1951
Edited
What! Someone to be with you at home? I never heard of that! Versed is a standard anesthetic used in cataract surgery and quickly leaves your system.
I was put to sleep with general anesthesia. for outpatient hand surgery and there was no requirement that my responsible person ( my cousin) stay at home with me. Very odd to say the least. Call Kaiser and ask them about that.
Spring1951 Lynda111
Posted
Honestly, I was sitting here thinking the same thing. I am still in shock and it does seem like a peculiar requirement specially since it was not written anywhere and when I probed about the responsible person nobody mentioned the home part? I can't figure out how they are not getting others who go up there for surgery and are rejected and if so why have they not posted it anywhere? I have never seen anything this strange in my whole life! I will register a complaint.
Lynda111 Spring1951
Edited
I just read where U of Cal at Davis outpatient surgery center wants discharged patients to have someone stay the night with them, so maybe it's a state law requirement for the facility. But not for you. Get a friend or a neighbor and have them sign they will stay with you. No one will ever know if they don't. You know what I mean?
Spring1951
Edited
Yes, that is true as I am sure everybody has a friend or relative state they are staying the night and then they do not.
I am sure I will be able to dig someone up by March 23 but they would have to take time off to drive me and pick me up in addition to claiming to stay the night. There are many good medical transport companies but they will only drive and pick up.
Surprised to hear about U.C. Davis! I wonder if many surgery centers will be adopting this policy in the near future?
karbonbee Spring1951
Posted
Here in Ontario, your support person doesn't have to stay at the clinic the whole time waiting for you, they will be called when you're ready for pickup. I was told to allow two and half to three hours for the whole thing before I'd be ready to go (three for me cos I have problems with anesthesia of any type). So check on that -- whoever drives you could at least leave and carry on with their day til you're ready.
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I'm very sorry that they have made you wait by not doing their job properly, however... now there's still time to convince you to maybe come over to the "dark side" of the Eyhance brigade. Hahaha.
Spring1951 karbonbee
Edited
Your ride requirement sounds reasonable for all types of people including single people who can hire someone to drive them!
karbonbee Spring1951
Posted
My instructions say that if you are unaccompanied by a support person, but arrive by taxi for example, then they will do the surgery but you won't be sedated. Since this clinic uses IV, I'm assuming that means that they'll just freeze the eye or possibly give you something to relax you, though they don't mention what. You sign a release anyway for both the surgery and the anesthesia, so what difference does it make. Me, I would have lied and said that I had someone to stay at home.
Spring1951 karbonbee
Edited
Interesting and at least you had detailed instructions ! That would be the same as my HMO requirement.
Can you imagine these duds not giving me that information ahead of time???!!!
I couldn't lie as she wanted to see a live body other than my driver but she did give in a bit and would have talked to my neighbor on the phone saying she would be at my house. I panicked and called two neighbors who I am friendly with and they were not there.....then my phone stopped working properly....can you believe it!? ..... ending calls.
I was so flustered that I couldn't figure out how to fix it until I got home and re-booted it. Total nightmare situation AND I am really angry at my HMO and filed a complaint today I hope this will not happen to another poor, unlucky and pathetic soul!
karbonbee Spring1951
Posted
That is good that you filed a complaint! I can't believe either that they weren't clear with you about that beforehand. It's really like pulling teeth sometimes; it's always the hundred and first question that you never thought you even needed to ask that kicks you from behind. Me, I would have really give them "what for"! I can't drive anywhere with only my glasses and the surgery requires that I not wear them for a month prior to it, so having to be dependent on someone to drive me around for another couple of weeks (I don't live in a city or big town), would have been way too much. Someone would have been crying, and it wouldn't have been me, lol. I'm usually very laid back, but I have little patience for wilful stupidity like what this clinic has shown you.
Spring1951 karbonbee
Edited
The more I read some posts, the more I realize how sloppy and inefficient my HMO has been with this situation. Now I know others are getting the necessary information for their eye surgeries from the reports here.
I have been with this HMO my whole life mainly in San Francisco, however I never got sick or used it very much so it was fine all these years.
Not being able to drive would be hard for me. I grew up on buses since one could live in San Francisco without a car and it is a great city in which to walk. For some reason my mother did not like to drive but I love to drive and have become very car dependent. You'll be happy when you can dirve again, I am sure!
karbonbee Spring1951
Posted
That sounds weird! I was told only that I had someone to pick me up -- otherwise, they would not give me a sedative to do the operation, only freeze the eye. Nothing was mentioned about having someone in the house overnight. I'm so sorry that you got blind sided by this. Like you said, you were all prepped and ready to go - really unfortunate!
Spring1951
Edited
You might want to double check that you don't need the person at home also. At my HMO It was not posted anywhere and when I called up and asked about the "responsible person" they did not mention it??!!!
Someone here wrote that U.C. Davis now is also requiring the home person when a sedative is given.
I would double check if I were you!
karbonbee Spring1951
Posted
I just called the clinic I'm going to, and they double confirmed that I did not need someone to stay with me, just drop off and pick up.
Spring1951 karbonbee
Edited
Good move on your part! Good luck with your surgery!
karbonbee Spring1951
Posted
Well, you would have done the same, if they had been more straightforward about the requirements, so thanks for the heads up. They're assuming that everyone has family or some sort of support around them that could do this, and many people just don't. So much for the freedom of being self sustained or being a hermit, lol.
Spring1951 karbonbee
Edited
Specially, since we are older (71) and many people's family are deceased. Also, I am not from this area (Portland) and spent most of my life in San Francisco where I had more contacts.