Surgery

When you and your surgeon decide that surgery is the best course of treatment, the scheduling process starts with your surgeon is filling out a surgery booking form. The OR scheduling team needs that form to determine the type of procedure, its duration, the hospital selected, and any special equipment needed for the case. In addition, the booking form specifies any pre-operative testing the surgeon may want such as lab work, EKG, chest X-ray, vascular testing, and pre- or post-op physical therapy. Your surgeon will also decide if you need to see your primary care physician or cardiologist prior to surgery for medical clearance. If you do require any further testing for medical clearance, this must be set up prior to scheduling the surgery.

Many times the surgery booking form is filled out in the office after the discussion to pursue surgical treatment. Some patients may wish to discuss the decision with family members or the place of work prior to formal scheduling. In the latter case, patients can leave a message with the surgeon regarding the decision and timing and your surgeon can submit the necessary booking form to a physician coordinator.

The physician coordinator will pick a surgery date with you and set up your testing (if required). The physician coordinator will try to set everything up with you while you are in the office so when you leave you have a printout of all of your appointments and your instructions for surgery. If you go home and decide later to set up surgery, when you call we will take a message for the surgeon to complete the surgery scheduling form and once we have that, we can call you back, pick a surgery date, make your appointments and mail your paperwork back to you.

You will need to come back and see your surgeon and his physician assistant for what is called a surgeon's history and physical. If your surgeon has ordered testing or referred you to another physician, he will have all the results available for review at that appointment.

Once the physician coordinator has completed that paperwork and booked your surgery with the hospital, she will send a message to the billing office staff who will contact your insurance company for any required precertification

All surgeons at Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine have OR time at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover and Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester each week. Some of our surgeons also have privleges at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. You, as a patient, may want to check with your insurance company to see if your benefits vary depending on the hospital. We do get precertification for you but all insurance plans are different and it is your responsibility to know what is and is not covered.