Applying ERAS, each laparoscopic colorectal surgery saves 20 million VND

This is the result of a study with patients undergoing laparoscopic colorectal surgery when applying the ERAS program (enhanced recovery after surgery) at Cho Ray Hospital.

ERAS (enhanced recovery after surgery) helps patients recover quickly, as well as brings practical economic values ​​- Photo: Provided by Cho Ray Hospital

At the conference "Implementing ERAS in surgery: Current advantages and challenges" recently held in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Ha Anh Duc - Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, Ministry of Health - assessed ERAS as a "breakthrough" directly related to the surgical sector, in line with the integration trend and the medical field with the goal of taking the patient as the center.

ERAS stands for Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, which is a method of caring for patients before, during and after surgery. This program has been implemented for a long time in the world but is still quite new in Vietnam.

Associate Professor Lam Viet Trung - Deputy Director of Cho Ray Hospital (HCMC) - said that the purpose of the conference is to share an economic perspective with managers and scientists when the ERAS program brings clear economic efficiency in shortening hospital stay, reducing complication rates and total treatment costs, and increasing patient satisfaction...

Recently, Cho Ray Hospital conducted a study on laparoscopic colorectal surgery patients who applied the ERAS program. Comparing 92 patients before ERAS (March 2022) and 82 patients after ERAS (March 2023), the results show that the hospital stay before and after ERAS was shortened from 11.4 days to 7.1 days (a difference of about 4 days).

Preoperative hospital stay decreased from 4.1 days to 1.4 days.

Notably, when applying ERAS in laparoscopic colorectal surgery, the average treatment cost decreased by nearly 20 million VND per patient (from 81.97 million VND before ERAS to 62.69 million VND).

Of which, the cost paid by patients themselves decreased from 48 million VND to 40 million VND, and the cost paid by health insurance decreased from 33.54 million VND to 28.73 million VND.

"This economic benefit brings to patients, surgeons and hospitals," said Associate Professor Trung, hoping that all hospitals, clinical units, management agencies and health insurance will participate to further spread the ERAS program.

With the report "Perioperative nutrition in ERAS - Issues to note and introduction of nutritional intervention protocol in surgery" - Doctor Luu Ngan Tam, head of nutrition department of Cho Ray Hospital, demonstrated that avoiding patients from fasting for a long time before surgery, or drinking carbohydrate solution 2 hours before surgery, early nutritional intervention, encouraging early exercise... have brought about many obvious effects.

In fact, applying and adjusting these steps significantly reduces the rate of postoperative complications such as infection, pneumonia, and anastomotic leakage, thereby reducing unnecessary costs and increasing patient satisfaction.

Mr. Duc said the department will develop new service quality standards, aiming for integration, including applying the ERAS standards to the scale for assessing the quality of medical examination and treatment services, which can be specific to the surgical field or integrated in general.

"The ultimate goal of applying ERAS to hospital quality assessment standards is to give doctors peace of mind at work and patients the best services," concludes the Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management.

SPRING PLUM

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ap-dung-eras-moi-ca-phau-thuat-noi-soi-cat-dai-truc-trang-tiet-kiem-20-trieu-dong-2025070619450701.htm