About us

The VA Boston Healthcare System provides you with exceptional health care, trains America’s future healthcare providers, and conducts important medical research.

Health care and services

We provide you with health care services at eight locations, serving Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex and Plymouth counties. Facilities include our Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center campus in Boston, the Brockton VA Medical Center campus, and West Roxbury VA Medical Center campus. We also have five community outpatient clinics in Boston, Framingham, Lowell, Plymouth and Quincy. To learn more about the services each location offers, visit the VA Boston health services page.

Together, VA Boston facilities provide exceptional and accessible care for more than 60,000 Veterans from the greater Boston area and across New England.

 VA Boston HCS is one of the leading health care systems serving Veterans in the VA New England Healthcare System, also known as VISN 1, which includes medical centers and clinics in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island.

Learn more about VISN 1.

Research and development

VA Boston HCS hosts one of the largest and most active research programs in VA, and 10 national centers of excellence, including the Million Veteran Program, the VA Biorepository Brain Bank, and two divisions of the National Center for PTSD: the Behavioral Science Division and Women’s Health Sciences Division. We conduct research to discover knowledge, develop VA scientists and health care leaders, and create innovations that advance health care for Veterans and the nation.

Learn more about our research programs.

Teaching and learning

VA Boston Healthcare System maintains general medicine and teaching hospitals that provide a full range of health services for Veterans, with state-of-the-art technology as well as education and research. We offer fellowships and internships in psychology, an Interprofessional Advanced Addiction Fellowship, and a Behavioral Informatics Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.

We partner with more than 100 academic affiliates, including Harvard Medical School, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston College Connell School of Nursing, Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Tufts University’s Department of Occupational Therapy, and the New England College of Optometry. In all, VA Boston trains more than 2,000 future health professionals annually.

We also maintain affiliations with the following medical centers:

• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

• Boston Medical Center

• Brigham and Women’s Hospital

• Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

• Massachusetts General Hospital

• Tufts Medical Center

• Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

We’re proud of our partnerships with top institutions and organizations that support the educational mission of the VA.

Learn more about educational opportunities with VA Boston.

Fast facts

• Patients served: 61,529 (Fiscal Year 2022)

• Outpatient visits: 733,029 (Fiscal Year 2022)

• Facility size: 539 beds

• VA Boston Community Living Center (CLC) maintained an overall 5-star rating for the second quarter, Fiscal Year 2023, in CLC Compare.
• Maintained second and highest level Certification for Committed to Care Excellence in the Age Friendly Health System by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement - received certification Sept. 2021 and maintained annually since.
• Opened a 20,000 square-foot Neuroscience Building for research and clinical use Sept. 15, 2022, featuring MRI and laboratory space, as well as high-powered data processing and innovative collaboration spaces.

Accreditations and achievements

Our facilities and programs have received accreditation from:

• Joint Commission

• Long-Term Care Institute

• Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities

• American Association of Blood Banks

• American Board for Certification in Orthotics and Prosthetics

• American College of Radiology

• Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories

• National Commission for Quality Assurance

• Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care

The VA Boston Healthcare System received the following awards:

• Dec. 2022, VA Boston HCS again selected as one of the top places to work in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe. This makes four years running and 11 of the past 13 years. This year, we ranked 22nd among the largest employers in Massachusetts - the top-ranked hospital of our size.