Sarah Cannon - April 16, 2018

Geer-335733[1]Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR) is a proven, research-based partnership in which patients have the ability to take a more active role with their clinical care team and help improve their experience and surgical outcomes.

The patient is the most important member of the care team, and ESR focuses on making sure that they are actively involved in their recovery. ESR helps patients recover sooner so life can return to normal as quickly as possible.

What Are The Benefits of ESR?

While ESR poses no additional risks to patients, there are many benefits, including:

  • Eat sooner after surgery.
  • Shorten hospital stay.
  • Reduction of nausea.
  • Faster recovery.
  • Appropriate management of pain.

What Are the Phases of ESR?

There are four phases of ESR, including:

  • Planning & Preparing Before Surgery: Providing plenty of information so patients feel ready.
  • Reducing the Physical Stress of the Operation: Allowing patients to drink up to two hours before their surgery.
  • A Pain Relief Plan: Focusing of giving patients a multimodal pain relief plan that will keep them comfortable, and trying to avoid opioids uses after surgery, which will speed their recovery.
  • Early Feeding & Moving Around After Surgery: Allowing patients to eat, drink and walk around as soon as they can.

“The use of Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR) programs in surgical oncology have recently been shown to decrease hospital stay, opioid use, and complications from surgery,” said Richard Geer, MD, Physician-in-Chief of Surgical Oncology at Sarah Cannon. “This has been associated with no increase in re-admission to the hospital and significantly improved patient satisfaction. ESR will become the new standard of care for surgical procedure within the next few years.”

What Patients Need To Do

Before Surgery

  • Understand pain management and mobility by discussing it thoroughly with their clinical care team.
  • Set realistic goals with their clinical care team.
  • Drink water as they would normally both the night before and up to a predetermined number of hours before the scheduled surgery.
  • Drink a carbohydrate-rich beverage a predetermined number of hours before the scheduled surgery.

After Surgery

  • Move, stand and walk around as much as possible after your surgery.
  • Communicate the level of pain to the clinical care team on a regular basis.
  • Revisit the goals with the clinical care team to ensure surgical recovery success.

For more information on ESR contact askSARAH at (844) 482-4812 to speak to a nurse available 24/7.