Quality and Safety in Health Care, Part XIX: Variants of the ERAS Program.

The integrated recovery pathway is a variant of the enhanced recovery pathway after surgery program, which saw a further decrease in complications and mean length of stay after a change in culture was instituted with more accountability of the staff to following the pathway. This was accomplished using a team-based comprehensive unit-based safety program. It has also been found that another variant of the enhanced recovery pathway after surgery program had a further improvement of patient outcomes after instituting a "preventive surgical site infection bundle."