Preparing at home

Decide together

You will always be presented with several options you can choose from when you visitor a doctor for an examination or for treatment. Which treatment or which examination will suit you best will depend on a number of different things. This includes the possible risks and side effects, your lifestyle and circumstances, your profession and your own wishes. You can make your decision based on the following 3 questions.

1. What are my options?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these options?
3. What will that mean in my situation?

These questions will invite your doctor to provide you with good information and to conduct an open discussion with you. You can subsequently reach a joint decision regarding which examination or treatment would suit you best.

Are you on any medication?

Are you on any medication? Make sure we always know exactly which medication this involves. Always bring along any medication you use at home. Even if this is medication you have acquired abroad, or medication which has been prescribed for someone else. The more information we have about your medication, the better we will be able to assist you.

Preparing children

Children visiting hospital for the first time often have no idea what to expect. Such visits can often also be very traumatic for their parents and carers. You can rely on us to provide you with good information and clear explanations. Parents can help their children by effectively preparing them for visiting our hospital.

A few tips:

• Make sure you know what is going to happen yourself.
• Thoroughly read through any information provided.
• Don’t tell children, especially young ones, everything in one go.
• Make sure you take plenty of time.
• Carefully decide on the preparation timing (for example, not just before going to bed).
• Be honest.

Have you visited a foreign hospital?

Some bacteria can cause problems in a hospital. We would therefore like to know whether you have visited a foreign hospital in the past year. You may have been infected with MRSA or MRO. These are so-called hospital bacteria which are insensitive to antibiotics. Please let us know as soon as possible, allowing us to take the appropriate measures. HMC attaches the greatest value to our patients’ safety. We are counting on your understanding for this precautionary measure. We have prepared a number of questions in connection with your safety and the safety of others. Please go through these questions before your visit our outpatients department.

Please check the 7 questions

Dutch hospitals don’t want special insensitive bacteria such as MRSA or MRO to spread. That’s why we would like you to notify us if you think you could be infected. This will allow us to take the appropriate measures to avoid any further contamination. We therefore ask all our patients to answer the following 7 questions before visiting our hospital. We can subsequently estimate whether you represent an increased risk of infection.

1. Have you been infected with MRSA or another resistant bacteria (MRO)?
2. Have you been admitted to, or received treatment at, a foreign hospital or a national hospital/care institute other than HMC during the past 2 months?
3. Have you been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for MRSA or another resistant bacteria (MRO) during the past 2 months?
4. Have you been in contact with any commercially kept pigs / veal calves / broilers, or do you live on a company site where these animals are kept?
5. Do you have an adopted child (up to 10 years old) and has he/she been in the Netherlands for less than a year?
6. Have you been resident in an institute for asylum seekers for less than 2 months?
7. Have you visited the Middle East, or another country where MERS or Ebola is prevalent, in the last 4 weeks?

Have you answered 1 or more questions with a Yes?

• Have you answered 1 or more questions with a YES?
  Then please let us know. You can do so on the day of your appointment at the reception desk.
• Have you answered all 7 questions with a NO?
  Then you don’t need to do anything else.

We act in accordance with the Working Group for Infection Prevention (WIP)’s national guidelines in case of a (suspected) MRSA or MRO infection.