Due to heating, ventilation and air conditioning system issues in the Colmery O’Neil VA Medical Center Operating Room in Topeka, the CEO of VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, Rudy Klopfer has determined that the operating room will be temporarily closed. While that occurs the operating room cases for the Veteran’s OR procedures will continue uninterrupted as they will be redirected and scheduled at other locations. To meet the needs of Veterans, operating room procedures will be provided at the system’s second hospital in Leavenworth. Other locations that may be used will include Irwin Army Community Hospital at Ft. Riley, as well as within community hospitals.

The reason for the decision is the safety of Veteran patients due to uncertainty of maintaining safe and consistent temperature and humidity during procedures due to the HVAC’s current condition. The existing equipment is beyond it’s useful and operational life and removal of high outdoor humidity is extremely difficult to control. While short-term temporary fixes were researched, they were determined to be not-cost effective and not in the best interest in the use of taxpayer money. Due to the safety concerns for Veterans, prohibitive cost, small number of surgeries performed the operating room will remain temporarily closed.

There is a planned project to replace air handling unit’s campus wide in Topeka. That project will replace the surgery air handling unit and allow for better control of the internal environment. The anticipated date for construction completion is the February – March 2019 time frame.

Surgery staff will be reassigned to support other critical patient care areas in Topeka and / or Leavenworth as surgeries are still being performed in Leavenworth. While the operating room in Topeka is temporarily closed, a full review of their surgical emphasis t include the type of surgeries or procedures to be performed at that location, in alignment with surgery complexity level and their Foundational Services will occur.