Surgery FAQ's
Within 3 business days, you will hear from our surgery scheduler. They will go through available dates with you and schedule your pre-operative appointment (1-2 weeks prior to surgery), your surgery date, and your first follow up appointment (2-3 weeks after surgery).
*Worker’s Compensation has a different chain of events. See the Worker’s Compensation FAQ below for more information
DO NOT take aspirin, fish oil, or NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs such as advil, ibuprofen, meloxicam, diclofenac, etc) the week before surgery.
The surgery center will go over all of your current medications and supplements and advise on when or if you will need to discontinue before surgery and when you can resume post surgery.
If you are on any form of blood thinner (i.e. aspirin, coumadin, warfarin, xarelto, plavix) please let Dr. Rodriguez and the team know at the time of decision for surgery or scheduling.
If you have a history of heart disease, heart surgery, diabetes, lung disease, liver disease, are on blood thinners or any other major medical issues, you will need medical clearance with a specific provider prior to surgery.
If your procedure is scheduled at St. David’s Surgical Hospital, you will be referred to Dr. Smiley’s pre-operative testing clinic at St. David’s. For any other facility (Texas Orthopedics Surgery Center, Seton Hospitals, etc.), you will be referred to the Seton Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) Clinic. They will call you to schedule your appointment with them. This should be completed prior to your pre-operative appointment with Dr. Rodriguez.
In the recovery room after surgery, you will be given a packet of paperwork with important information to take home with you. On the night of surgery, you will receive a HIPAA compliant text message through a service called Doximity with specific post-operative instructions. Please read through this in full and save the PDF to your phone to refer back to.
Most procedures require Physical Therapy post-operatively. We will send a referral via fax to the location agreed upon, and they will call to schedule your first appointment. The Physical Therapy office will advise you on your copay and discuss insurance benefits with you.
You will be sent a prescription prior to surgery for post-operative pain. If you need a refill, please let us know 3 days prior to running out of the medication. If you need more than 1 refill, you may be referred to pain management.
If you see a pain management provider, they will be responsible for your post-operative pain medications. You are responsible for discussing with them when your procedure is scheduled and a plan for your post-operative pain.
There are usually four separate costs involved with surgery. You will have a bill from Dr. Rodriguez, the surgical assist, the surgery facility, and Anesthesia.
Each party will verify insurance eligibility and benefits and call with an estimated cost for their portion of the surgery within 1 week of your procedure.
Dr. Rodriguez’s Physician Assistant, Kirstin, assists in all cases. Her portion of the procedure cost is handled by a third-party company called Acquisition Billing Services, LLC. If you have any questions regarding a bill or payment from this company, please call 855-598-2800.
The time of your procedure is determined by the surgery center or hospital. The facility and anesthesia will call 1-3 business days prior to surgery. They will also review your cost estimates and medications.
Please ensure your voicemail box is set up and accepting new voicemails in case you miss any of these calls.
All patients scheduled for surgery at Texas Orthopedics Surgery Center are required to complete pre-registration paperwork before surgery. You can follow the link below for direct access: https://www.onemedicalpassport.com/
If your procedure is through Worker’s Comp (WC), we will send surgery orders and notes to your WC prior to scheduling your procedure. Once we receive an approval, our surgery scheduler will call to schedule your procedure. We cannot proceed with scheduling until we receive this approval. This can take several weeks.
OTHER QUESTIONS?
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions. You can reach us via phone at (512) 485-0530 or via the patient portal.
