ERAS – Enhanced Recovery After Surgery For Colorectal Procedures

What is ERAS? This means… Working together as a team with healthcare professionals and the patient to helps to reduce the risk of surgical complications so the patient gets better sooner, has a better surgical experience, an aim to return to normal daily living sooner and has a shorter hospital stay. “Enhanced recovery is a modern evidence-based approach that helps people recover more quickly after having major surgery.” – NHS Choices

Background in the L&D Began to implement ERAS in 2013 Currently we cover 4 specialities – Colorectal, Bariatric, Orthopaedic, Urology Have 3 members in our team We aim to cover a 7 day service See patients along their journey Work closely with all healthcare professionals to help improve patients’ surgical experience

Traditional vs ERAS What we did before…. Fasted patients for a long time No real information given beforehand Used heavy anaesthetics Large wounds for everyone Kept patients in bed! Not allowed to eat or drink till patient passed wind! Resulted in higher rates of DVT’s, chest infections and other complications In turn, hospital stay was nearly 2 weeks!! High re-admission rates

Traditional vs ERAS What we do now….. Aim to see all patients prior to surgery Vastly reduced fasting times Improved surgical techniques Get patients up and moving asap!! Allow patients to eat and drink asap, good nutrition! Good pain management Work closely as a team Follow up phone-calls Reduced LOS in hospital – on average 5 days Reduced re-admission rates

“…knowing someone was on the end of the phone to contact..” Some patient feedback.. “The main benefit was a feeling that everything was being done to make my recovery as smooth as possible” “If you didn’t do as you were told , then you wouldn’t be on to a winner” “The daily goals and advice received, made a big difference to the speed of my recovery” “…knowing someone was on the end of the phone to contact..”

Thank you for listening  In summary, our evidence based ERAS programme has; Reduced the overall length of stay Increased patient satisfaction Provided support to patients and staff Raised the profile of the hospital Coming soon…. We aim to introduce programmes for Gynae, Obstetrics, Head & Neck and next…anything is possible! We need to increase our team to do this! Thank you for listening 