Hospital stays are never fun, but some preparation can make them more tolerable.
For Tressa Krippel of Rochester, being prepared for a hospital stay involved many things when it came time to give birth to her and her husband Todd's four sons.
Knowing where to enter the hospital after hours was among things that came in handy. For the Krippels - who had three sons born at Memorial Medical Center and one son at St. John's Hospital - the rides to the hospital occurred between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m.
"I kept in mind, and never realized I would need it, was just sort of the hours of the hospital as far as the front doors, especially at Memorial. At labor and delivery, if you came in after 10:30, you had to go to the emergency room and enter that way," said Tressa, whose sons are 8, 6, 3 and 1.
"That was good to know because if you're rushing and you go to the front doors at Memorial, you have to get back in your car and go all the way around.
"At St. John's, you automatically go to the Carol Jo Vecchie Center."
Hospital stays, no matter if they're for surgery or giving birth, can be made less frustrating if you're prepared ahead of time.
Tours and classes
Tressa and experts at Memorial and St. John's suggest taking a hospital tour or class.
Memorial and St. John's offer tours for children facing surgery and for adults who request them.
During St. John's "Surgical Discovery" preoperative tour for patients ages 3 to 14, children and their families can take a guided tour of the hospital and meet some of the staff.
"It helps them to become more prepared, less anxious. They get the opportunity to do it with their parents and siblings," said Susan Spears, certified child life specialist with St. John's Children's Hospital. "When I do those tours, and I can do them individually as well ... I really see a huge difference in the patients that come here on the day of surgery, where their anxiety level is."
Tours and classes may help alleviate common concerns such as the fear of going to sleep under anesthesia.
Memorial's staff reassures patients by telling them about the skill, experience and knowledge of the anesthesia group and surgeons. They let them know how safe anesthesia is today compared to when the anesthetic ether was used years ago, said Susan Roth, nurse manager for admissions and testing at Memorial.
"Medications are so much better than they were," Roth said.
Surgery or a hospital stay will always be tough, no matter what patients are hospitalized for, Spears said.
"But knowing that they're telling you what's going to take place beforehand, again makes a great difference in a hospital stay here, and I think that's true with adults as well," Spears said.
Tressa Krippel encourages parents-to-be to take classes before hospitalization. Tressa and her husband took breastfeeding, Lamaze and baby preparation classes. They also toured Memorial before the birth of their first son in January 2001.
"Childbirth itself was probably the unknown, but as far as the stay, I felt pretty prepared as far as what the classes had told us to expect. They were good and informative as far as like who would be in the room. They were good as far as going over security," Tressa said.
Pre-admission contact
Pre-admission contact at both hospitals may include pre-admission testing. Patients are contacted before surgery day at St. John's and Memorial so their medical histories can be reviewed. Preoperative instructions on what to expect are explained to patients, who also may have questions answered.
"If we have all the pre-admission done, then the patient has less anxiety the morning of because we've hopefully addressed a lot of their needs or identified any resources that they might need," Roth said.
"Also, it helps us on the clinical end of things because we've been able to screen the patient, do some testing and identify if there's any outliers that we need to identify before surgery."
Patients should be aware that during the pre-admission process, they could be asked questions repeatedly. That's for validation, Roth said.
"We're validating to provide the safest care and make sure nothing has been forgotten or slipped through," Roth said.
"So, they may get asked some of the same questions again, like their patient identification, their name, day of birth, etc."
Insurance
People who have health insurance should confirm with their insurance companies what is required upon hospitalization, especially when it comes to a maternity stay, Tressa said.
"When I had my first son, we were required to notify them within 24 hours that we had had our son," Tressa said.
"I have a friend who actually didn't notify the insurance in time, and they ended up having to cover the hospital stay themselves."
Legal documents
Patients should bring insurance cards to the hospital.
Also important to bring are copies of advance directives - a living will and/or durable power of attorney, Roth and Spears said.
"Even if they're coming in for any type of procedure outpatient, that way we can get a copy and put it in their chart," said Melissa Trader, manager of main pre-an/pediatric pre-an/pre-admission testing at St. John's.
Advance directives are legal documents that ensure patients' medical wishes are carried out.
A living will spells out preferences regarding life-sustaining procedures. A durable power of attorney names a health-care proxy.
The birth of the Krippels' first son prompted them to look into drawing up a will.
"Now that we were going to have an additional member of the family, (we decided to) start planning ahead for them if something were ever to go wrong," Tressa said.
Bringing items
Patients should wear something comfortable when arriving at Memorial for surgery, Roth said. A child or disabled person also can bring a comfort item, including a blanket or stuffed animal.
"We recommend that they leave valuables at home - money, jewelry - but to bring everything that they would need to better facilitate their hospitalization, like their sensory aids like hearing aids, glasses, cane, walker," Roth said.
Patients at Memorial must wear gowns for procedures such as surgeries, but depending on the circumstances, they could bring comfortable pajamas for afterward.
"We probably offer (gowns) more for convenience because the gowns have the snaps. Where a female might have her own gown, if you've got an IV, it may not be as convenient," said Roth, who added that patients can bring comfortable robes and slippers with good traction.
Tressa brought a focal point to have in her hospital room. For the birth of her first son, she brought a stuffed Mickey Mouse.
"With each child, I just ended up taking each one of my boy's picture from when they were a baby just to sort of remind me, 'Here's what your goal is, and here's what I'm looking forward to at the end of this journey,' " Tressa said.
Tamara Browning can be reached at 788-1534.
