Perioperative surgical home models and enhanced recovery after surgery

In recent years, numerous initiatives have been introduced to address changes in health-care costs, delivery methods, reimbursements, and the health-care needs of our aging population. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) defines the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) as a patient-centric, team-based model of care to help meet the demands of a rapidly approaching health-care paradigm emphasizing value, patient satisfaction, and a reduction in costs. Enhanced recovery pathways were initially established by a group of surgeons from Europe who formed a research group with the aim to explore the ultimate care pathway for patients undergoing colonic resections. Similar protocols were later expanded to various surgical specialties with promising outcomes. A PubMed and World Wide Web search was performed with the following key words: “ERAS®,” “enhanced recovery after surgery,” “PSH,” “perioperative surgical home,” “protocols,” “outcomes.” Articles found were published over a 20-year time range (1997-2017). In the present investigation, the most common elements of enhanced recovery protocols are reviewed. Review of how existence of a PSH model facilitates the creation of an enhanced recovery protocol and improves cost-efficiency, patient satisfaction, and clinical outcomes observed in enhanced recovery studies that are applicable to health-care systems universally is described.