Healthier You

USE
PRIMARY
HEALTH CARE
SENIORS CARE
SURGICAL ACCESS
MENTAL HEALTH
AND SUBSTANCE USE
SURGICAL ACCESS
RURAL CARE
Surgical
initiative:
Putting patients at the
centre of their care
Most of us regard surgery as something that is done to patients by
physicians and nurses. But that thinking is going by the wayside at
Interior Health hospitals, thanks to a quality initiative called Enhanced
Recovery after Surgery (ERAS).
“Enhanced Recovery is about doing WITH patients, and not TO
patients,” says Garth Vatkin, Interior Health’s Quality Improvement
Consultant for surgical initiatives. “When patients are partners in their
care, it results in better outcomes.”
Enhanced Recovery is designed to help patients recover from major
surgery more safely and easily than ever before. It’s a multidisciplinary
approach – every health-care professional who touches the patient
is included and involved along the way, from initial consultation in
the surgeon’s office, to pre-surgical screening, to the anesthesiologist
and operating room staff, to the post-operative recovery team which
includes nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists,
and dietitians.
above: Kelowna anesthesiologist
Dr. Ron Collins is an advocate for
Enhanced Recovery, an approach that
puts more control in patients’ hands
and results in fewer complications
post-surgery.
credit: Photo courtesy of the Royal
College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Canada.
22 Healthier You spring 2016