Prehabilitation prior to elective surgery for frail elderly – protocol for a scale-up analysis

BACKGROUND: Elderly patients frequently develop a frailty syndrome. Frailty is characterized by reduced physical reserves which increases the risk of perioperative complications and, thus, of patients needing long-term care. Prehabilitation before elective surgery can reduce risk factors and is currently evaluated as a new and sustainable care pathway for frail elderly in a randomized trial (NCT04418271). If found to be effective (the primary outcome being the level of care dependency 12 months after surgery), the pathway will be recommended for national scale-up. This protocol outlines the analyses intended to prepare for scale-up. METHODS: We will perform a scale-up analysis to assess whether and how prehabilitation can be implemented into routine care in Germany, including: (i) a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis of facilitating factors and barriers from the perspective of health care providers and patients (via semi-structured interviews, and a realist review); (ii) a scalability analysis using the Intervention Scalability Assessment Tool (ISAT) in an expert advisory board; (iii) a subgroup analysis to identify patients in the PRAEP-GO trial for whom prehabilitation was particularly effective; and (iv) a budget impact analysis based on routine data to estimate the total cost of implementing prehabilitation from a payer's perspective. The scale-up analysis will identify challenges and opportunities for the implementation of prehabilitation. It will contribute to the development of an implementation strategy, including specific proposals on how to finance the intervention. The budget impact analysis will provide an estimate of the financial impact of routine implementation of prehabilitation on the health budget. CONCLUSIONS: If prehabilitation for the frail elderly is evaluated positively, its implementation should be prepared based on our study results, which includes establishing required infrastructures and defining financing concepts. KEY MESSAGES: • The proposed scale-up analysis will examine scalability of the implementation of prehabilitation for frail elderly into routine care in Germany. • The implementation of a new care pathway having a positive effect on patients’ level of care dependency can be considered sustainable.