Once you've confirmed that the surgery facility is accredited, there are several things you should investigate both about its operation and the level of your surgeon's involvement during the recovery phase.
Make sure your surgeon has privileges at a nearby accredited acute care hospital for the specific procedure being performed. That way, if anything goes wrong or if something unexpected occurs during the surgery, you can be admitted to a hospital where you will receive close nursing care and your physician can manage your hospital course.
All surgeons performing breast augmentation surgery will use either heavy sedation or general anesthesia. If your doctor will be sedating you, ensure that you will be appropriately monitored by registered nursing personnel trained to perform this duty. If your surgeon will be using general anesthesia, ensure that a board certified anesthesiologist will be administering it. If not, then at the very least, a certified registered nurse anesthetist with access to an anesthesiologist must be present during the surgery.
Receive verbal confirmation from your surgeon that both the emergency equipment available and the anesthesia monitoring devices that will be used are equivalent to those used in accredited hospital operating rooms. You don’t need to make notes of the equipment manufacturers and models – just get the "yes or no" answer from your surgeon. If his response is not favorable, then ask to have your surgery performed at another facility or go with a different surgeon.
Ensure that at least one registered nurse will be directly monitoring you in a recovery area that is separate from the surgical suite where the procedure was performed, and ensure that at least one doctor will be present at the facility until you have fully recovered.
A physician should be responsible for discharging you from the facility, and this responsibility usually falls upon your surgeon or the anesthesiologist – anything less is unacceptable.
Next: Essential information that you need to know about anesthesia.
