Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires has achieved ERAS® Qualification in colorectal surgery, becoming the only ERAS® Qualified Center in Argentina.
The qualification was awarded on May 9, 2026, following completion of the ERAS® Implementation Program (EIP) within the hospital’s Coloproctology Department, with compliance continuously measured through the ERAS® Interactive Audit System (EIAS).
As one of the country’s largest and most established hospitals, this milestone represents an important step forward for structured, evidence-based perioperative care in Latin America.
What ERAS® Qualification means
ERAS® Qualification is independently assessed and awarded by the ERAS® Society. It recognises hospitals that demonstrate sustained, high-level compliance with ERAS® guidelines in daily clinical practice, not just at a point in time, but consistently across the full patient pathway.
For Hospital Británico, this means ERAS® is no longer simply an initiative or project within the Coloproctology Department. It has become part of the standard way care is delivered.
Building the team and the program
The implementation was supported by the Médica Uruguaya training team and backed by the executive sponsorship of Medtronic/Covidien Argentina.
The team describes the central challenge honestly: coordinating a complex, multidisciplinary group within one of Argentina’s largest institutions, while navigating socioeconomic obstacles, institutional changes, and significant administrative barriers. Different professions, different schedules, different starting points, all needing to align around a shared protocol and sustain that alignment over time.
What emerged was a team that is stronger for having gone through it. The same people who started the program completed it. Along the way they improved their clinical metrics, increased patient satisfaction, and built the internal governance and measurement culture needed to sustain ERAS® delivery on an ongoing basis.
As the team put it: they are the same individuals they were at the start but now functioning as a unified team within the hospital
The results
The data show steady improvement following ERAS® implementation, with clearer gains in the most recent periods.
Length of stay decreased from 9 days before ERAS® implementation to 7.2 days, with a continued decrease recorded in the last six months. ICU use follows the same downward trend. Reoperation rates have declined progressively. Mortality has remained low throughout. Complication rates have remained relatively stable overall, though serious complications have fallen in the last six months.
Compliance has increased across all periods and aligns with the improvements seen in recovery and resource use.
Why this matters for Argentina
Hospital Británico is the only ERAS® Qualified Center in Argentina for colorectal surgery. In a healthcare system where perioperative care standardisation is still developing, this qualification demonstrates that structured, audited ERAS® implementation is not only achievable at scale, it is sustainable.
This milestone positions Hospital Británico as a reference point for ERAS® adoption across Argentina and the wider Latin American region.
If you are looking to start or expand your ERAS® implementation, learn more about Encare’s solutions here: Solution – Encare
