General Surgery Outpatient Program

The general surgery outpatient program, part of the Outpatient Surgical Specialty Center at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach, provides general surgery consult, evaluation and surgery preparation education to the patient and the family before a child gets scheduled for their surgery. The outpatient general surgery team provides patient and family centered care for infants, children and adolescents up to the age of 21, who have hernias, gastroschisis, skin tags and other conditions that need general surgery to treat a condition. The general surgery outpatient program also provides care to expectant mothers.

Clinical Evaluation & Treatment

Upon arrival, the surgeon will do a complete physical exam, consultation and evaluation to confirm or narrow down a suspected diagnosis. Some common tests preformed include, x-rays, lab tests and other diagnostic procedures to help diagnose the condition.

Non-Surgical Care

Very minor procedures with the use of lidocaine to numb the skin area can be done in the General Surgery Clinic, such as the removal of skin tags to remove benign skin growths. Dressings also can be applied to cover wounds.

General Surgical Care

The surgeon will explain the surgical procedure and the surgical care team will schedule the surgery time if the patient’s surgery doesn’t require an authorization (i.e. PPO, HMO). If the patient does require authorization, then the surgical care team will request an authorization. Once the authorization is received, (usually one to two weeks later) the surgical care team will contact the family to schedule the surgery.

Surgeries take place in the Surgical Center at Miller Children’s and most surgeries are now done using minimally invasive technology.

Prenatal Consults

Prenatal consults are given to women who have a baby in utero that has been diagnosed with gastroschisis. Gastroschisis is an opening in the abdominal wall (muscles and skin of the abdomen) that appears during fetal development. The general surgeon will explain to the expectant mother, how and when the surgery will happen on her baby after she delivers and will give her a tour of the neonatal intensive care unit (sometimes the NICU is on a restricted visitor policy during flu seasons and doesn’t accept tours).

Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach is a perfect fit for this type of care, because Miller Children’s has board-certified pediatric surgeons and a level III NICU with expert neonatologists, who work together to create the best outcome for baby, under the same roof.

Follow-Up Care

Most patients will be asked to complete post-operative follow-up care at the General Surgery Clinic to ensure that there are no complications from the surgery and that the patient is recovering well. This typically happens in the two to three weeks following the surgery. After a few follow-up visits care is usually returned back to the primary care physician. Follow-up care may be longer for children who had a more complicated surgery.

Visit the General Surgery Outpatient Clinic.