Banner Health, Phoenix VA pair to perform outpatient surgeries for veterans

PHOENIX — Banner Health and the Phoenix VA Health Care System are becoming partners  in surgery.

The two healthcare facilities are getting together to perform outpatient surgeries for veterans at Banner Health’s Surgicenter, located near 12th Street and McDowell Road.

Doctors and nurse case managers will come over from the VA to perform hundreds of surgeries at the Banner facility. The surgical staff, operating rooms and supplies will be provided by Banner.

“We are going to have VA physicians as well as nurse case managers working side by side with the clinical, the technical and the administrative staff from Banner Health,” Deborah Amdur, director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, said.

Amdur said the partnership means veterans will get faster care and operating rooms will be freed up for more complex surgeries.

“When a veteran needs surgery that doesn’t require a hospital stay, we can perform that surgery here in the state-of-the-art operating rooms that Banner has to offer, let the veteran recover here and let them then return to the comfort of his or her home,” Amdur said.

Amdur said the outpatient surgeries performed at Banner will include shoulder repairs along with general surgery such as hernia repairs, podiatry and hand surgery, plus OB-GYN procedures.

“Without partnerships like this, the VA alone could not provide the care for the number of veterans that we are very privileged to have across the entire state of Arizona,” Amdur said.

So far, sixteen veterans have had outpatient surgery at the Banner Health Surgicenter.

“While we just recently launched this partnership, we have seen outstanding results so far,” Becky Kuhn, executive vice president for community delivery for Banner Health, said.