Pre-admission Clinic

The Pre-admission clinics in Calgary assess all patients in advance of elective surgery through a nurse phone call assessment.  Based on the nursing phone call, certain patients are asked to be seen in-person, to better prepare them for their surgery. Across the city well over 5000 patients are seen each year. In-person patient assessments done in the clinic are performed by a multidisciplinary team and can involve a nurse, a general internist, an anesthesiologist, and often a physiotherapist, stoma nurse or pharmacist.  Patients asked to be seen in-person often have special situations that the team looks to explore in greater detail, such as a previous poor reaction to anesthesia, complex pain medication prescriptions, or medical conditions that would benefit from further evaluation and optimization before surgery.  The Pre-Admission clinics also screen patients at risk of poor perioperative outcomes related to certain conditions, such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and to help patients who would like support with smoking cessation before surgery. The patients will learn from the clinic anesthesiologist about their anesthetic options and types of monitoring they can expect. Staff provide patients with general information about the day of surgery, as well as instructions about when to stop eating/drinking and which of their medications to take before surgery.  Our Pre-admission clinics participate in the nationally-recognized "Choosing Wisely" campaign and with surgery-specific ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) programs.