AORN Enhanced Recovery After Surgery
What is Enhanced Recovery After Surgery?
You’re dedicated to excellence in surgical care. We’re here to support that mission. By partnering with the AORN Center of Excellence in Surgical Safety and focusing on enhanced recovery after surgery, we provide the tools and protocols to elevate patient outcomes. Let’s redefine surgical recovery together.
Why Enhanced Recovery Matters
Enhanced recovery after surgery is a comprehensive, evidence-based approach designed to provide patient-centered, interdisciplinary pathways that help surgical patients achieve early recovery.1 By implementing standardized care protocols, enhanced recovery after surgery ensures that all patients receive the highest standard of care, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Promotes Health Equity
Get patients back to their normal lives quicker:
Enhanced recovery after surgery protocols have been proven to shorten recovery times and reduce complications, leading to improved financial outcomes.2
Consistency in Care:
Enhanced recovery after surgery provides health equity across a facility so that every patient’s experience is enhanced. By providing consistent, high-quality care to all patients, enhanced recovery after surgery helps reduce disparities in surgical outcomes across different populations.
Multidisciplinary Approach:
Enhanced recovery after surgery involves collaborative effort and constant communication among surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to ensure the best possible care for patients.
How Can We Enable Patients to Have the Best Possible Surgical Experience?
It starts with patient education and data tracking.
Enhanced recovery after surgery empowers patients by providing them with the right resources and knowledge about their surgery and recovery. Tracking of patient data from before and during the surgery helps the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) team optimize each individual's recovery.
Achieve your goal of delivering the best patient care, ensuring health equity and excellence for every patient.
Better Outcomes = Lower Costs
In a 640-patient study at John Hopkins Hospital, researchers saw 17.3% reduction in variable direct cost, a total of $1,897 savings per patient.3 This extends from:
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26.4% or 1.9 days reduction in mean length of stay per patient3
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Reduction in 30-day morbidities: surgical site infection, venous thromboembolism, and urinary tract infections3
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Reduction in major routine cost categories like supplies, operating room, medications, and radiology3
So how does this translate to your organization’s bottom line?
A financial model and sensitivity analysis showed that Implementation of an enhanced recovery after surgery program that supports 500 annual cases could mean:
$395,717
of Net Savings in the first year (implementation, personnel, and materials)4
$591,556
of Net Savings in Maintenance (personnel and materials)4
Join Us in Promoting Implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery
As a sponsor of the AORN Center of Excellence in Surgical Safety, we are committed to advancing health equity through the implementation of enhanced recovery after surgery protocols. We invite you to learn more about this transformative program and how it can benefit your patients and healthcare facility.
Get Involved
Sign up for our free gap analysis and be the first to know about exciting updates and opportunities to participate in the enhanced recovery after surgery program. Together, we can make a difference in patient care and promote a healthier, more equitable future.
1 Enhanced recovery after surgery. ERAS Society. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://erassociety.org/
2 AORN Guideline for Implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS). Published 2025.
3 Wick EC, Galante DJ, Hobson DB, et al. Organizational culture changes result in improvement in patient centered outcomes: implementation of an integrated recovery pathway for surgical patients. J Am Coll Surg. 2015;221(3):669-677. doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2015.05.008
4 Stone AB, Grant MC, Pio Roda C, et al. Implementation costs of an enhanced recovery after surgery program in the United States: a financial model and sensitivity analysis based on experiences at a quaternary academic medical center. J Am Coll Surg. 2016;222(3):219-225. doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2015.11.021