History

VA Boston Healthcare System

The current VA Boston Healthcare System was created by a merger between VA Medical Centers in Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury, Mass. Since January 2001, all inpatient services have been located at the West Roxbury and Brockton campuses, while Jamaica Plain serves as a hub for outpatient care, offering ambulatory care and primary care services, along with community outpatient clinics in Causeway, Framingham, Lowell, Plymouth and Quincy. The inpatient service serves as the tertiary care center for VA facilities in all six New England states.

The West Roxbury campus, sited on 29.58 acres of land at 1400 VFW Parkway, opened in 1943 as a 382 bed acute care facility at a time when World War II casualties were high and the need for hospitalization of Veterans was acute.  In April 1952, the President approved a plan to convert the hospital to a paraplegic center as part of a master plan to transfer paraplegic patients and certain medical and surgical patients from the former Cushing Hospital in Framingham to West Roxbury.  Inpatients at West Roxbury were transferred to the new Boston VA Hospital in July 1952 to allow the conversion of the West Roxbury facility to a combined paraplegic center and general medical and surgical hospital.  Since that time the West Roxbury facility has undergone a series of renovations and expansions, including a 100-bed clinical addition housing SCI patients which opened in 1979 and a modern 150,000 square foot outpatient, research and administration building which was activated in the Summer of 1989.

Article about potential new Boston VA hospital, Boston Globe, April 4, 1946.

The Jamaica Plain campus, sited on 16 acres of land, opened in 1952 as a 1,000 bed tertiary general medical and surgical hospital.  On July 10, 1952, the first group of 100 patients transferred from the West Roxbury VA Hospital arrived at Building 1 located on 150 South Huntington Avenue in Jamaica Plain. In the Spring of 2001, a 95,000 square foot state-of-the-art ambulatory care addition was activated.  As a result of the integration of the Boston VA Medical Center with the Brockton/West Roxbury VA Medical center, the patient population at Jamaica Plain was slowly transferred to the West Roxbury and Brockton campuses.  Today the Jamaica Plain campus is the hub of outpatient care and research for the VA Boston Healthcare System.

Efforts to locate a VA hospital in Brockton began as early as March 1940 by Mayer Rowe and the Chamber of Commerce.  On Nov. 8, 1949, Brockton, state, national and Veterans Administration officials met in city council chambers to sign transfer papers conveying 217 acres of land in Brockton for a new VA hospital to the Federal government for the sale price of $1.00.  Construction of the hospital complex off 940 Belmont Street began on May 7, 1952, and on October 23, 1953, the first group of 60 patients transferred from the Bedford VA Hospital arrived at Building 2 at the Brockton VA Hospital to be nearer their homes and friends.  At that time, the Brockton VA Hospital was the largest, most expensive and modern facility of its kind in the country.  The largest of the buildings (Building 3) was the general medical and surgical treatment building, which served as the centerpiece of the 26-building complex built to care for the mentally ill, those stricken with tuberculosis, or patients in need of general medical and surgical care.  The buildings are all connected by a system of underground tunnels making it unnecessary for patients to go outdoors to get from building to building. Facilities included a 114 by 78-foot gymnasium and a 60 by 35-foot indoor swimming pool.

The Brockton and West Roxbury facilities, initially consolidated in 1983, were consolidated with the Jamaica Plain facility in 1999 to form the VA Boston Healthcare System.