The day of surgery is filled with anticipation and anxiety. Finding your way and waiting for surgery contribute to the stress. Once surgery is underway, time seems to pass slowly as family and friends wonder about the outcome.

The following information will provide you with wayfinding information, a better understanding of the process and why we ask you to arrive early on the day of surgery.

Finding Your Way On Campus

California Campus - East
Patients who have pre-registered for surgery should take the elevator on the lobby level to the third floor.

California Campus - West
Patients who have pre-registered for surgery should take Elevator A to the third floor and check in at the front desk.

Davies Campus
All patients should check in at the Admitting Office upon arrival for surgery.


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Waiting for Surgery

Patients are asked to arrive two hours in advance of their scheduled surgical time for two important reasons:

It could take up to 40 minutes to get you ready for surgery. First, a nurse will evaluate your physical condition and have you change into a gown. The next step is to establish intravenous access (our nurses are experts at this) and review your paperwork to ensure that everything is in order.

Occasionally, procedures take less time than anticipated; in which case we will be able to move up the time of your surgery. If that should occur, it is important that the preliminary steps have been completed.

Staying ahead of schedule whenever possible provides a cushion of time for the surgical team to accommodate the inevitable, occasional delays and still be on time for patients scheduled after you. For example, if you came an hour early and the patient before you came late you could go first and this would not delay the procedure for patients who were scheduled after you.

We take your scheduled surgical time seriously and fully intend to honor that schedule. Experience has taught us, however, that it is wise to regard the scheduled surgical time as flexible. This means that your surgery could be performed early if a prior surgery took less time than planned or it could be late if the prior surgery ran late.

We will keep you informed. Most surgeries occur within 30 minutes before or after the scheduled time. We consider surgery to be “late” if you wait 45 minutes after the scheduled time. We realize that this can be difficult for you and are committed to updating you every 15 minutes on our progress.

Your comfort and well-being are very important to us. Please let us know if there is any other information we can provide.

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