• After your surgery, you will be taken to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), where the nursing staff will make you comfortable and monitor your condition as you recover.
• If you require a higher-than-normal level of care after your surgery, you may be taken to an intensive care unit directly from the operating room.
• Family members are generally not permitted to accompany adult patients into the recovery room (Post-Anesthesia Care Unit) areas. Exceptions are made for pediatric patients and patients with special needs, such as a translator. If you will be staying overnight in the Hospital, Family members and guests will be able to visit you in your hospital room during normal visiting hours
• After you have been observed and recovered sufficiently, you will be transferred either to your regular hospital room (if you are staying overnight) or to an ambulatory discharge area in preparation for going home.

Returning Home

• As noted above, you must have a responsible person with you to take you home if you are leaving the hospital on the day of surgery, otherwise we will not be able to perform the surgery. New York State requires that every patient who has had anesthesia and/or sedation must be escorted home after ambulatory surgery. Because you may feel drowsy from even minor surgery and light sedation, it is also advisable for you to have someone help take care of you at home after ambulatory surgery.
• To make your after-surgery experience as comfortable as possible, you will receive specific discharge instructions from your surgeon/proceduralist and a telephone number to call should you have any questions.
• You may receive prescriptions from your doctor for pain or to prevent infections.
• You will receive follow-up calls from your surgeon/proceduralist or nurse, and from your anesthesiologist to check on the progress of your recovery.