The Medical City Named Center of Excellence for Enhanced Recovery after Surgery Program

The Medical City has been officially recognized as a Center of Excellence for Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) Program in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia.

ERAS is a multidisciplinary program aimed at improving patient outcomes and recovery after surgery. It focuses on the involvement of the patients being active participants in their own recovery and ensures that they receive only evidence-based care at the right time.

“One of the things that make the ERAS Program remarkable is that it uses patients and their families as an appropriate resource in planning and managing their own recovery and care,” said Dr. Manuel Francisco Roxas, chairman of the Department of Surgery of The Medical City.

Being an ERAS Center of Excellence, TMC is responsible for propagating and promoting the practice of ERAS nationwide.

ERAS represents a paradigm shift in perioperative care in two ways. First, it re-examines traditional practices, replacing them with evidence-based best practices when necessary. Second, it is comprehensive in its scope, covering all areas of the patient’s journey through the surgical process.

ERAS principles of care are focused on three key areas namely preparing the patient for surgery, during surgery, and after surgery.

“What patients probably don’t realize is that they themselves can do something so they can be back on their feet as quickly as possible after operation,” adds Dr. Roxas.

Dr. Roxas cites four elements of the ERAS program. These are pre-operative assessment, planning and preparation before admission; reducing the physical stress of the operation; a structured approach to immediate post-operative and during (peri-operative) management, including pain relief, and early mobilization.

ERAS focuses on less invasive surgical techniques, pain relief and the management of fluids and diet, which help patients to get on their feet quickly post-operatively. It also strives to make events in a hospital as normal as possible such as patients eat in a dining area, not in their beds or walking in the corridor within 12 hours after surgery.

The benefits of the ERAS program include improved patient experience and patient satisfaction and reduced length of hospital stay, postoperative complications, readmissions to critical care and readmissions after discharge.

“We at The Medical City are embarking on the ERAS program as part of our commitment to further improve the quality of services we provide to our patients,” says Dr. Roxas.

For more information about The Medical City ERAS program, please call the Department of Surgery at 9881000 or 9887000 ext. 6288.