About us

About VA Bronx Healthcare System 

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

Health care and services

We provide you with health care services at 4 locations in Bronx, northern Queens, and Westchester counties. Facilities include our James J. Peters VA Medical Center and 3 community-based outpatient clinics in Queens, White Plains, and Yonkers. To learn more about the services each location offers, and the services our mobile clinic provides, visit the VA Bronx health services page. 

The VA Bronx Healthcare System is one of the leading health care systems serving Veterans in the New York/New Jersey VA Health Care Network. We’re an innovative care center within the Veterans Integrated Service Network 2 (VISN 2), which includes medical centers and clinics in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 

Learn more about VISN 2

Research and development

At the James J. Peters VA Medical Center, 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. We offer Veterans the opportunity to participate in and benefit from our work. Our goal is to use research to promote better health and health care for all. 

Our world-renowned research program, housed in a separate research building built in 1985, has been widely recognized for its many achievements. Our researchers have received many national and international awards, including the Nobel Prize. 

Major research areas include: 

• Viral oncogenesis
• AIDS
• Prosthetic devices for spinal cord injuries (SCI)
• Metabolic alterations in SCI patients
• Alzheimer's disease
• Psychiatry
• Kidney (renal) research
• Disorders associated with alcoholism, tobacco, and digestion
• The James J. Peters VA Medical Center has created a spinal cord tissue bank and a brain bank to help with research and treatment. We also support accredited research programs in our Geriatric Research Education Clinical Center, Mental Illness Research Education Clinical Center, and Rehabilitation Research and Development Center.

Teaching and learning

Our James J. Peters VA Medical Center is a teaching hospital that provides a full range of services, with state-of-the-art technology as well as education and research.  

We have active affiliations with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the Hospital for Special Surgery, and the Columbia Presbyterian School of Medicine. We offer approved residency training programs in 16 medical and 2 dental specialties, including fully integrated residency programs in general surgery and medicine and subspecialties like psychiatry, general dentistry, oral surgery, rehabilitation medicine, urology, neurology, and pathology.

We also offer graduate and postgraduate training programs in dietetics, psychology, social work, speech pathology, pharmacy, podiatry, rehabilitation therapies, and health care administration. In addition, we have a hemodialysis unit for the treatment of chronic and acute kidney disease and a radiation therapy service that serves as a consultation and referral center for complicated cancer cases.

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

Fast facts

• VA Bronx Healthcare System provides primary and specialty health care services to Veterans living in a 3-county area in and around New York City.
• The James J. Peters VA Medical Center has 311 hospital beds and 120 nursing home beds.
• The VA medical center in the Bronx is the oldest VA facility in New York City, dating back to the 1920s. 
• The medical center occupies an historic site in the Bronx. Located on the highest point in New York City, it served as a strategic vantage point during the Revolutionary War. 
• From the late 1800s until 1920, the Sisters of Charity operated an orphanage on the site where the medical center now stands. The Boy's Chapel, built in the 1800s, remains on the hospital campus and is used daily.
• On September 26, 2005, the Bronx VA Medical Center was officially renamed in honor of James J. Peters, who served more than 30 years as executive director of the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association (now United Spinal Association).
• Our medical center operates several regional referral points, including spinal cord injury (SCI) and VISN referrals for medical and surgical subspecialties. For example, our SCI Patient Care Center is the referral point for VISNs 2, 3, and 4 as well as new SCI patients referred by the Department of Defense. 
• The James J. Peters VA Medical Center serves as home to the VISN 3 Network Telephone Care Program, which is staffed by registered nurses and available during weekend, holiday, evening, and overnight hours. The nurses provide telephone helpline service for Veteran patients from 27 VA medical centers in VISNs 2, 3, 4, and 5 and emergency backup for VISNs 6 and 8. 
• As a member of the Greater New York/New Jersey Consortium on Homelessness, the James J. Peters VAMC is proactive in helping homeless Veterans. In collaboration with New York City and New York State we provide staff and services at 3 area homeless shelters. Our medical health van visits areas where homeless Veterans gather and provides transportation for homeless Veterans who need medical or mental health treatment.

Accreditations and achievements 

Our facilities and programs have received accreditation from:

• The Joint Commission
• Commission of Accreditation on Rehab Facilities
• Commission on Cancer
• American Society of Health System Pharmacists
• Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care
• URAC (formerly Utilization Review Accreditation Commission)

The VA Bronx Healthcare System received the following awards:

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