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North Carolina Children’s Hospital announced it would suspend heart surgeries for the most complex cases, some of which had a mortality rate approaching 50 percent in recent years, pending investigations by state and federal regulators and a group of outside experts. In a statement on Monday, UNC Health Care, which runs the hospital and is affiliated with the University of North Carolina, also introduced several initiatives to “restore confidence in its pediatric heart surgery program.” (Gabler, 6/17)

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation into the Chapel Hill facility after a New York Times report published last month. The article included audio recordings in which cardiologists were alarmed at the number of child deaths. (6/17)

Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, quickly assembled a team to investigate the program. The team’s onsite work was completed Friday, according to Kelly Haight Connor, a spokeswoman for the state DHHS, giving them 10 business days to complete a report that then is to be submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for review. “While UNC Health Care and its Board of Directors have strong confidence in our extraordinary current pediatric heart surgery team, we believe it is vitally important that both current and future patients, our medical colleagues, key regulators, and the public share this confidence,” Charlie Owen, the UNC Health Care board of directors chairman, said in a statement released Monday. (Blythe, 6/18)