Patient experiences of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS)

Abstract

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is a multimodal pathway whose strong evidence base is changing the methods used to care for patients before, during and after surgery. As a result, patients are being safely discharged at a much earlier stage than has previously been thought possible. Literature concentrates on the surgical and economical benefits of ERAS. There is a lack of research into the patients' perspective of the programme. This study used semi-structured interviews to investigate issues of significance to ERAS patients. The issues were grouped into themes: information provision, inpatient experiences, home recovery experiences (i.e. home convalescence) and psychological and emotional experiences. Although participants reported many good aspects of their ERAS experience, the findings highlighted the need for improvement particularly with regard to post-discharge support from both community services and hospital follow-up.