CARDIAC SURGERY ERACS PATHWAY: A PROGRAM EVALUATION

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathways have demonstrated improvementsin surgical outcomes across specialties, yet limited evidence exists on their sustainedimplementation in cardiac surgery (Engelman et al., 2019). ERAS in cardiac surgery firstemerged in 2017 with the establishment of the ERAS Cardiac Society, a nonprofit organizationdedicated to developing evidence-based pathways to optimize patient care in cardiac surgery.This society—composed of cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists, and intensivists—created aseries of interventions aimed at improving outcomes across the continuum of care. Theseinterventions are organized into preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases ofrecovery (Engelman et al., 2019).This project aimed to evaluate the ERACS program at a large academic center in NorthCarolina and was implemented in 2023. The evaluation assessed adherence to ERACS protocolelements, evaluated patient and staff experiences, and identified barriers and facilitators topathway sustainability. This project used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’sProgram Evaluation Framework (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024; Kidder etal., 2024).This program evaluation demonstrated that ERACS contributes to improvedpostoperative outcomes but requires targeted strategies for consistent adoption. Strengtheningstaff education, redesigning workflows, and utilizing real-time dashboards may improve adherence and sustainability. These findings contribute to the growing evidence that ERASpathways in cardiac surgery enhance recovery and reduce complications.