GENERAL INFORMATION:
hospital admission
Prior to your procedure you will be admitted to a hospital or day clinic. This admission process will include an administrative aspect (the hospital will need to take down all your details including name and address, contact persons and medical aid details) as well as a nursing aspect (taking your medical history and preparing you for the surgery). This can all be a time-consuming process and you should ensure that you arrive at the hospital sooner than later. As an alternative, most modern hospitals offer a "pre-admission" facility where most of the paperwork can be completed days or weeks in advance and the admission on the day of surgery is much smoother and less rushed. Please ask your Surgeon if your hospital has such a facility and make use of it. It really makes the day of your surgery far less stressful.
Some medical aid schemes are reluctant to permit admission to hospital the night before major surgery. For minor procedures in healthy patients, this is usually not a problem. However, if you are having a major surgical procedure or you have serious medical problems, it would be in your interest to be admitted to hospital the day before surgery. Should your Surgeon or Anaesthesiologist recommend that you be admitted the day before surgery and your medical aid scheme refuses you this right, we would recommend that you insist that they supply you with written confirmation that they accept responsibility for this decision.
Most medical aid schemes require patients to obtain pre-authorization numbers before any surgical procedures. Please remember that you should do this well in advance, as the lack of this number can lead to delays in your admission and surgery. Also, please remember to bring your medical aid card and identity document to the hospital with you.
Some medical aid schemes are reluctant to permit admission to hospital the night before major surgery. For minor procedures in healthy patients, this is usually not a problem. However, if you are having a major surgical procedure or you have serious medical problems, it would be in your interest to be admitted to hospital the day before surgery. Should your Surgeon or Anaesthesiologist recommend that you be admitted the day before surgery and your medical aid scheme refuses you this right, we would recommend that you insist that they supply you with written confirmation that they accept responsibility for this decision.
Most medical aid schemes require patients to obtain pre-authorization numbers before any surgical procedures. Please remember that you should do this well in advance, as the lack of this number can lead to delays in your admission and surgery. Also, please remember to bring your medical aid card and identity document to the hospital with you.
This information was reproduced from the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists (SASA) website Patient Corner page with permission from the webmaster (http://www.sasaweb.com)