The Aurora VA Hospital is resuming all surgeries after a pause due to residue

The Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Aurora resumed all surgeries this week, after a long pause while investigating why instruments had residue on the instruments after sterilization.

In early May, the hospital stopped performing surgeries with reusable instruments, although procedures with disposable equipment were able to continue. The company hired a supplier to repair the sterilization machines in early July and began performing some procedures again late this month.

By mid-June, the sterilization problem had postponed or canceled 436 surgeries and 103 dental appointments. Veterans who needed time-sensitive surgeries could get them at other hospitals. As of Monday, all operations had resumed.

The VA has said it was initially unable to identify where the black spots on some trays of sterilized instruments came from, although they quickly ruled out the possibility that previous patients’ bodily fluids had stuck to them.

They later discovered that the spots were made of plastic.

Sterilizing surgical instruments is a complex, multi-step process. Over the past five years, state inspectors have cited 16 Colorado hospitals for improper techniques, even though only two had visible residue on instruments and none had to halt operations. The VA has its own inspector, so reports on its hospitals do not appear in the state’s data.