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A multimodal perioperative care pathway designed to achieve early recovery for patients undergoing major surgery. The Enhanced Recovery pathway encompasses all stages of a patient\u2019s surgical experience\u2014pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative\u2014and depends on a collaborative effort from all perioperative health care providers.<\/p>\n
Enhanced Recovery is a paradigm shift that allows clinicians to re-evaluate traditional practices and employ evidence based guidelines. Enhanced Recovery is not research, it\u2019s goal is not to ascertain new knowledge, but rather utilize established recommendations and standardize care. Enhanced Recovery eliminates the variability in care delivered and ensures all patients are receiving the highest quality of care here at UNC.<\/span><\/p>\n Numerous clinical studies have demonstrated that enhanced recovery after surgery clinical pathways:<\/p>\n These outcomes have also been observed at UNC since our implementation <\/p>\n The successful implementation of Enhanced Recovery pathways is contingent on the collaboration between various health care teams and services. Importantly, despite requiring a multidisciplinary approach, the prevailing consensus from numerous studies suggests that Enhanced Recovery pathways will decrease the overall utilization of hospital resources. Enhanced Recovery pathways have been demonstrated to alleviate ancillary service workload, with some studies citing a 39% reduction in total time spent in nursing activities.<\/p>\n The sustainability of ERAS protocols is further underlined by preliminary studies that have suggested that these programs are more cost-effective than traditional care. Interestingly, there are a number of outcomes that demonstrate no differences in the utilization of health care resources between ERAS and traditional pathways. To elaborate, when comparing ERAS to traditional protocols, no significant differences have been observed with respect to surgery duration, readmission rates, and post-operative use of primary care services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why should we use Enhanced Recovery pathways?<\/h2>\n
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Benefits of Implementation and Sustainability<\/span><\/h2>\n