A new program called “prehabilitation” designed to help patients get physically and mentally ready for an upcoming surgery may also help reduce overall costs and get them home faster, a new study shows.
The program uses the weeks before surgery to encourage patients to move more, eat healthier, cut back on tobacco, breathe deeper, reduce their stress, and focus on post-operation goals.
In 2017, after its first test in surgery patients at the University of Michigan, the approach showed signs of reducing total medical costs related to the patient’s care, and cutting their length of a hospital stay, compared with similar Michigan Medicine patients who had surgery before the program began….