Staffing changes led to yearlong halt on heart surgeries at Aurora VA hospital [Video]

DENVER (KDVR) — One of two inspection reports released Monday on the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System hospital in Aurora showed that staffing changes led to two pauses on cardiothoracic surgeries — including one that lasted more than a year, and leadership did not inform the Central VA office.

The VA Office of the Inspector General was tasked with seeing if facility leaders had changed staffing in such a way that it “adversely affected the provision of cardiothoracic surgeries in the surgical ICU without adequate planning.”

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In April 2022, five adult critical care nurses resigned, transferred or retired “due to unfavorable changes” to surgical nurse schedules. Because of this, cardiothoracic surgeries were soon paused that year, from June 13 to July 12, while the facility “attempted to emergently hire providers.”

A second CT surgery pause was implemented a …