MARION, Ill. – The Department of Veterans Affairs says it's resuming minimally invasive operations at a southern Illinois medical center where surgeries were halted since 2007 after a spike in patient deaths.
The VA announced Wednesday that the Marion site will begin offering what the department calls "standard-level surgeries" that carry low complication risks. Those procedures include appendectomies, hernia repair and other procedures that investigators say the facility is ready to resume.
The facility had been under intense scrutiny since August 2007, when a surgeon resigned after a patient bled to death following gall bladder surgery. All inpatient surgeries were suspended within a month.
Investigators later found at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March 2007 resulted from substandard care.
The medical center serves veterans in portions of Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana.
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