Survey of provider perceptions of enhanced recovery after surgery and perioperative surgical home protocols at a tertiary care hospital

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) and perioperative surgical home (PSH) initiatives are widely utilized to improve quality of patient care. Despite their established benefits, implementation still has significant barriers. We developed a survey for perioperative clinicians to gather information on perception and knowledge of ERAS/PSH programs to guide future expansion of these programs at our institution. The survey included questions about familiarity with ERAS/PSH and perceived value, perceived barriers to protocol implementation, preferred learning methods and prioritization of various ERAS/PSH protocol elements into care delivery and provider education. Faculty surgeons and anesthesiologists, in addition to advanced practice nurses and postgraduate physician trainees in the Departments of Surgery and Anesthesiology were asked to complete the survey. Overall survey participation was 25% (223/888). About half of survey respondents had provided care to a patient on an ERAS/PSH protocol, and a majority felt at least somewhat knowledgeable about ERAS/PSH protocols. Perception of the value of ERAS/PSH was positive. Participants were enthusiastic about on-going learning, with multimodal pain management being the topic of most interest and learning by direct participation in care of protocol patients being the favored educational approach. A significant majority of participants felt that upcoming health providers should receive formal ERAS/PSH education as part of their training. Based on our survey results, we plan to explore teaching methods that successfully engage learners of all levels of clinical expertise and also overcome the major barriers to gaining knowledge about ERAS/PSH identified by study participants, most notably lack of time for busy clinicians.