SNUH earns Korea's 1st ERAS certification, boosts surgical recovery
Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) has been officially designated by the ERAS Society as an “ERAS Qualified Center,” becoming the first hospital in Korea to receive the certification.
This milestone follows significant improvements in the hospital's surgery-related outcomes after introducing the evidence-based surgical patient management program Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS).
On Wednesday, SNUH announced that it had become the first hospital in Korea and the sixth in Asia to achieve ERAS certification by successfully applying the program in real-world clinical practice to improve patient recovery and reduce hospital resource use.
“This achievement means that SNUH has set a new standard for surgical patient care in Korea and marks an important milestone in Korean healthcare's participation in the global standardization of perioperative patient care,” the hospital said.
ERAS replaces traditional perioperative practices—such as prolonged fasting, extended bed rest, and narcotic pain management—with scientifically proven best practices. These include perioperative preparation, optimized pain management, nutrition, and early mobilization to minimize surgical stress and promote faster recovery.
As the number of elderly patients and those with complex medical conditions increases, ERAS is gaining attention as a key strategy to improve surgical safety and efficiency. However, adoption in Korea has been limited, with standardized multidisciplinary collaboration and quality management systems not yet fully established.
To overcome these challenges, SNUH completed the official ERAS implementation program by Sweden’s Encare more than a year and a half ago. A multidisciplinary team—including the departments of surgery, anesthesiology and pain medicine, nursing, and dietetics and nutrition—developed recovery protocols optimized for Korean patients and applied them in clinical practice.
By consistently applying ERAS strategies—such as reducing preoperative fasting with carbohydrate drinks, using multimodal analgesia to decrease reliance on narcotics, encouraging early ambulation, and removing catheters early—the hospital significantly reduced hospital stay and resource use while maintaining high-quality postoperative care.
The ERAS Society praised SNUH for its high protocol implementation rates, strong patient recovery outcomes, and reduced resource use. During the program, the average postoperative hospital stay dropped from five days to three. Serious complication rates, ICU admissions, and reoperations all fell from 2.6 percent to zero.
The post-discharge readmission rate also dropped sharply—from 5.3 percent to 1.6 percent—highlighting the ERAS program’s impact in clinical practice. These results go beyond simply meeting certification requirements and demonstrate ERAS’s effectiveness in Korea.
ERAS is a globally proven model for improving surgical recovery, reducing complications and readmissions, shortening hospital stays, and easing the healthcare cost burden. In addition to colorectal surgery, SNUH has implemented or is preparing to apply ERAS protocols to other surgical specialties as part of its goal to become an ERAS Center of Excellence.
“The designation as an ERAS Qualified Center is more than just an international certification—it means we’ve established a care environment where Korean surgical patients can recover more safely and quickly,” said Professor Jeong Seung-yong of the Department of Colorectal Surgery, who led the project. “It’s a foundation for expanding ERAS into more surgical areas.”
Professor Lee Ho-jin of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, who oversaw the ERAS implementation, added, “This achievement is the result of close collaboration among departments involved in surgical care. SNUH will continue developing an evidence-based perioperative management system based on this multidisciplinary approach.”