Enhanced recovery after colon surgery in a community hospital system.

Background: Enhanced recovery after colon surgery has not been widely adopted in the United States and Europe, despite evidence that postoperative complications and hospital length of stay are decreased.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the introduction of a comprehensive care process for enhanced recovery after colon surgery in 8 community hospitals.

Design: A system-wide, surgeon-directed, multidisciplinary committee developed a comprehensive enhanced-care quality-improvement program.