AT THE ACS QUALITY AND SAFETY CONFERENCE
NEW YORK (FRONTLINE MEDICAL NEWS) – A protocol that standardizes care before, during, and after colorectal surgery cut average hospital stays from almost 6 days to less than 3, reduced complications, and slashed costs an estimated $11,227 per procedure.
“We decided to take a look at our own data, and we saw that a couple of variables were higher than we wanted them to be,” said Deepa Bhat, MD , a second year surgery resident at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. Length of stay was one. Colorectal surgery patients were staying in the hospital an average 5.65 days, for example.
Their surgical site infection rate also warranted attention, Dr. Bhat said during a poster session at the American College of Surgeons Quality and Safety Conference. The overall complication rate was 6.45%.
“So, we decided to implement this enhanced recovery pathway in the hope that it would, one, get patients out of the hospital faster and allow them to recover at home and, two, decrease the rate of complications, including surgical site infections.”
Prior to the protocol, individual surgeons chose when to initiate fluids, when to discharge a patient, and many other preoperative factors. “Now, care is standardized so that every patient experiences the same pre-, intra-, and postoperative protocol, which leads to better outcomes,” Dr. Bhat said.
The multidisciplinary Enhanced Recovery After Colorectal Surgery (ERACS) pathway also now emphasizes more patient education prior to surgery. “The patients go into surgery having a very clear idea of what they can expect, such as how their pain will be controlled, when they can start liquids, and what their expectations are for ambulation,” she said. “By making patients active participants in their own care, they tend to do better.”
The investigators studied 246 elective colorectal surgery patients at their large, urban, community teaching hospital. They compared outcomes in 2014, versus 2015, to gauge the effectiveness of the ERACS. “The change in length of stay was really rather remarkable,” Dr. Bhat said. In fact, the typical number of days in the hospital decreased by about half from 5.65 to 2.89 days, a statistically significant difference (P less than .0001).
Historically, “the whole reason we don’t send patients home sooner is we’re worried they’re going to bounce right back, and that’s an issue for the 30-day readmission rate,” Dr. Bhat said. However, the enhanced recovery protocol was designed to minimize that risk, and the study verified that it works. “We wanted to show that you can send patients home safely and also not worry that they would come back more often.”
Patient satisfaction seems higher too. Dr. Bhat added, “Who doesn’t feel better at home?”
“It is pretty remarkable that you can send somebody home in less than 3 days and they don’t come back to the hospital with complications, versus having them stay double that amount of time,” Dr. Bhat said. The direct variable cost was approximately $3,705 lower with the ERACS, and total hospitalization costs decreased by up to $11,227 per patient. For the institution overall, that outcome translated into savings of approximately $1 million for the year.
Dr. Bhat continues to see increasing gains from the protocol ERACS since the study period ended. “Our enhanced recovery pathway is getting better and better and more efficient.” The institution is now looking to expand enhanced recovery protocols to other types of surgery.
Dr. Deepa Bhat had no relevant financial disclosures.
