The Department of Surgery at Plainview Hospital offers a wide variety of surgical services. Plainview Hospital has seven newly renovated state-of-the-art operating rooms. The members of the Department of Surgery — most of them board-certified in their respective specialties — perform approximately 7,000 operative procedures each year in different surgical subspecialties, including thoracic, vascular, general, ear-nose-throat (ENT or otolaryngology), urology and plastic surgery. Plainview Hospital has a 21-bed state-of-the-art intensive care unit that can support the most critical patients in pre-operative and post-operative care.

General Surgery

The General Surgery Division of the Department of Surgery offers a wide variety of surgical services, including breast surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, laparoscopic surgery, gallbladder surgery and hernia repair, among others. Our Ambulatory Surgical Service offers extensive outpatient procedures in a safe and convenient environment.

Vascular Surgery

The Vascular Surgery Division of the Department of Surgery performs approximately 300 vascular procedures yearly. These procedures include carotid artery surgery, abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery, peripheral vascular surgery and vascular access for renal failure patients. Our vascular surgery service, in combination with our Interventional Radiology Unit, is able to treat most of the peripheral vascular diseases with bypass or stent placement for improvement of poor circulation.

Ambulatory Surgery

The Ambulatory Surgery Unit cares for 400 patients per month. A large variety of surgeries are performed on an ambulatory basis. These include othopedic, ENT, hernia repairs, gynecological and many other procedures. 

Patients are seen by a physician and a nurse in the Pre-Surgical Testing Unit approximately a week before surgery. During that time, lab, EKG and any other required diagnostic testing is performed. Results are sent to the patient's physicians for review to ensure that the patient is in the optimum level of health for the planned procedure.

Patients arrive approximately 90 minutes prior to procedure for preparation for surgery and evaluation by an anesthesiologist. All patients are monitored on the latest high-tech equipment. The average length of stay is five hours. Patients are then discharged with instructions for immediate and follow-up care. They also receive a follow-up phone call from a nurse to ensure they are doing well.

The nurses in the perioperative department are highly skilled and experienced registered nurses. They are certified in advanced cardiac life support as well as pediatric advanced life support. Their experience, skills and education ensure that they are able to provide the best possible care to their patients. Their commitment to their patients and their profession is reflected in our continuously high patient satisfaction ratings and in our positive patient outcomes.

Endoscopy

We do about 300 colonoscopies a month in our endoscopy department. The entire process from registration to discharge usually lasts about two and a half hours. The nurses that work in endoscopy are certified in gastroenterology nursing. The scopes are reprocessed by nursing assistants who have had special education in the care and maintainence of endoscopy equipment. All the endoscopes undergo high-level disinfection and are air-dryed in a special scope closet. All patients are called within 24 to 48 hours after their procedure to ensure that everything went well and that they have no post-procedure needs. This callback feature is well liked by our patients and is part of the reason we have consistently high patient satisfaction ratings.