About Enhanced Recovery Canada
Helping patients feel better and get home quicker after surgery is vital, especially given the pressures facing our healthcare system. Enhanced Recovery Canada™ (ERC) surgical pathways and patient resources reduce complications and support shorter hospital stays and safer transitions after surgery.
Led by Healthcare Excellence Canada and partners, ERC was formed in 2017 to lead the drive to improve surgical safety across the country. This evidence-informed approach to surgical care is aimed at minimizing the stress of surgery and supporting patients to recover more quickly.
ERC was originally a project supported the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, under the guidance of its board of directors. In 2021, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute amalgamated with the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement to form Healthcare Excellence Canada.
How can you heal better, safely after a cesarean delivery?
The ERAS Society provides pathways for a number of specialties. In Canada, surgical pathway tools and patient resources are available to support the most frequent surgeries that occur in every operating room across the country, including colorectal, gynaecologic, inpatient and outpatient orthopaedic hip and knee replacements, and c-section surgery.
These evidence-informed principles support better outcomes for surgical patients including: an improved patient experience, reduced length of stay, decreased complication rates and fewer hospital readmissions.
Six core ERAS principles
Enhanced Recovery Canada’s clinical pathways and resources have been developed based on six core ERAS principles:
Patient and family engagement
Nutrition management
Fluid and hydration management
Early mobility and physical activity
Surgical best practices
Pain management with fewer narcotics
These represent a paradigm shift in how patient care is planned, delivered and monitored. The ERAS approach re-examines traditional practices, replacing them with evidence-informed best practices when necessary. For example:
ERAS best practices encourage stopping solid food for up to eight hours and enabling clear fluids for two hours before surgery. This challenges historical surgical practices of nothing by mouth after midnight on the day of surgery.
Traditionally, patients may feel the need to stay in bed to recover from surgery. Best practices, however, promote early mobilization, having patients up and moving as soon as possible after surgery.
What additional resources are available?
A Guide to Patient Safety Improvement
An implementation resource that can support healthcare providers using enhanced recovery guidance. Patient safety includes a substantial body of evidence, which demonstrates interventions (practices and processes) that lead to improved patient outcomes for numerous healthcare conditions.
Access Additional ResourceFluid Management for ERAS Colorectal
This 30-minute interactive learning case assessing fluid management for better patient recovery outcomes was developed in partnership with the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada and is available to all healthcare professionals. All learning modules qualify for MOC Section 3 credits.
Access Additional ResourceInterview with Dr. Henrik Kehlet
Through a series of prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials initially using the model of colonic surgery, Dr. Kehlet demonstrated that modifying the perioperative surgical stress response and revising traditional surgical care could have a dramatic impact on postoperative recovery and shorten the length of hospital stay.
Access Additional ResourceAbout Enhanced Recovery Canada and the ERAS principles
Helping patients feel better and get home quicker after surgery is vital, especially given the pressures facing our healthcare system. Enhanced Recovery Canada™ (ERC) surgical pathways and patient resources reduce complications and support shorter hospital stays and safer transitions after surgery.
Access Additional Resource