The Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic launches the implementation of the modern international programme ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery), which changes access to patient care before, during and after surgery. The main objective of the program is to enable patients to recover more quickly after surgery, which reduces surgical complications and thus leads to fewer re-acceptances and shorter hospital stays. There is an improvement in patient outcomes, a reduction in costs and an increase in health care efficiency. Specific steps for the implementation of the programme have been addressed by the Task Force.
The Ministry of Health has set up an expert working group to deal with the preparation of a strategic plan for the national implementation of ERAS, including standard procedures and financing analysis. Our goal is that every patient gets quality care and can return home and back to normal life as soon as possible,said Minister of Health Kamil Šaško. As he added, the ERAS programme is a concrete step towards improving the quality of healthcare provided while making efficient use of hospital capacity. –By shortening the patient's hospital stay and reducing the number of complications, we will allow for faster patient turnover and shorter waiting periods for surgery,The Minister of Health has added the following: The members of the established Working Group shall be, in addition to the representatives of the Ministry of Health, representatives of professional medical companies, health and health insurance missions.
The ERAS programme is based on multidisciplinary team cooperation, where clinical teams can coordinate their care processes more effectively using the most up-to-date knowledge. Active patient participation is also a key task. Everything starts already in the pre-operative period with quality preparation, information to the patient and efforts to improve his health.
Benefits of ERAS program:- faster recovery of the patient after surgery- shortening hospitalization by up to a few days-less post-operative complications- higher quality of life after surgery- higher availability of surgical procedures due to shorter hospitalization time- lower healthcare costs - increased effectiveness of healthcare.