If you are new to the ERAS® Protocols, we recommend that you and your perioperative team all attend the ERAS® Implementation Program (EIP). The EIP is a comprehensive training program which is suitable for your whole perioperative team, running over an 8 to 10-month period and where the use of the ERAS® Interactive Audit System (EIAS) is an integral part.
The ERAS® Implementation Program is an ERAS® specific training program designed and customized in such a way that you and your perioperative care team will find it easy to implement, reach and maintain at a high compliance level across the different ERAS® Protocols that are available. The focus is on building well-functioning teams from various units involved in surgical care, introducing highly specific changes to current routines to conform to best practice and providing the tools to monitor and analyse the effects of those changes through the ERAS® Interactive Audit System.
The ERAS® Interactive Audit System (EIAS) is a web-based audit and analysis system used to facilitate implementation and monitor compliance to the ERAS® protocols. EIAS is a quality and decision support system providing data to help you ensure that compliance to the specific ERAS® protocol, once implemented, is upheld and gives immediate feedback regarding any deviation from best practice.
A key focus of the system is ease of use to ensure widespread dissemination. Today hospitals throughout the world use this system to continuously audit their progress and help them maintain the improvements over time. See all ERAS® Qualified Centers.
What type of Information is collected and registered into the ERAS® Interactive Audit System (EIAS)?
To use EIAS for analyzing data, the hospital staff first collect and store a wide array of relevant information during the patient’s perioperative journey, from pre-admission to discharge and follow-up. The type of information collected is specified in the guidelines and is relevant due to its role in enhancing recovery after surgery. For this reason, the data collected in the EIAS is generally organized around the perioperative process.
- Admission information. This is where relevant demographic information is collected as well as information on pre-existing conditions that may affect patient outcomes. Examples of these include admission date, year of birth, height, weight, BMI, nutritional status, alcohol usage, presence of heart disease, or pulmonary disease.
- Operation. This section covers the period immediately preceding the start of the operation, the operation itself, and information on anesthesia/fluids. Examples of these include type of procedure, duration of procedures, surgical approach (such as laparoscopic or open), type of anesthesia used, administration of PONV prophylaxis, volumes of IV fluids.
- Recovery. This is where information on fluids, post-operative gut function, mobilization, post-operative pain, and nausea are documented.
- Discharge. Any complications during the primary hospital stay are documented here as well as discharge information.
- Follow-up. Complications that occur after discharge are documented in this section.
Licensed hospital staff of the EIAS are given access to the software as well as accompanying documentation and tutorials. Most of the information required in EIAS can be found in existing patient records and would only need to be copied over to EIAS.
Once the data is entered, the licensed hospital staff can have access to the Analysis & Reports section of the EIAS software and compare compliance to the protocol and associated outcomes. Watch this video and see how one can analyze your data efficiently and in-real time with the new generation of the ERAS® Interactive Audit System (EIAS).
Data entered into EIAS by the licensed hospital staff may be used for further research upon approval by the patient. Further the data is only accessible by licensed hospital staff and the software provider for support and maintenance. The hospital staff and/or the patient may at any given time request to have the data removed.
The EIAS comes with an application programming interface (API) to allow for transfer of hospital electronic health records into EIAS in order to make data collection and registration more efficient.