Aurora VA paused heart surgeries for months due to low staffing, had “culture of fear,” investigations find

The Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center paused heart surgeries for nearly a year between 2022 and 2023 because the hospital didn’t have the staff to care for those patients after their procedures — and never told the federal Veterans Health Administration, as required. Two new reports released Monday by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of the Inspector General detailed the surgical pause, which hadn’t been previously reported, and investigators’ findings that the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System’s leadership created a “culture of fear” that compromised patient safety.