About us

About VA Connecticut Healthcare System 

The VA Connecticut 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 10 locations in Connecticut. Facilities include our West Haven VA Medical Center, our Newington campus, and 8 community-based outpatient clinics in Danbury, New London, Orange, Stamford, Waterbury, Willimantic, Winsted, and West Haven. To learn more about the services each location offers, visit the VA Connecticut health services page.

Our Single PhotoEmission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) program is nationally recognized as one of the best offered by VA. We also maintain the only dialysis center in Connecticut for Veterans. 

We are recognized as a clinical program of excellence for Veterans with serious mental illnesses. 

The VA Connecticut Healthcare System is one of the leading health care systems serving Veterans in the VA New England Healthcare System. We’re an innovative care center within the VA New England Healthcare System (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

At the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 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. 

We administer the following National Veterans Health Administration research programs: 

• Eastern Blind Rehabilitation Center  

• Center for Neuroscience and Nerve Regeneration  

• Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC) 

• Coordinating Center for Cooperative Studies Program 

• National Virology Reference Laboratory 

• National Laboratory for Tuberculosis and Other Mycobacterial Diseases 

• Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) 

• National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 

• National Center for Research in Alcoholism and Substance Abuse 

• Clinical Epidemiology Center 

Teaching and learning

Our West Haven VA Medical Center is a teaching hospital that provides a full range of health services for Veterans, with state-of-the-art technology as well as education and research.  

We participate in the education and training of more than 675 physicians, dentists, and health care workers each year. We also participate in the training of more than 685 students in fields such as nursing, radiology, pharmacy, physical therapy, social work, laboratory medicine, and nuclear medicine. 

We maintain affiliations with: 

• Yale University School of Medicine 

• University of Connecticut School of Medicine 

• University of Connecticut School of Dentistry 

• Fairfield University School of Nursing 

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

Fast facts

• The VA Connecticut Healthcare System was officially formed in 1995, when the VA medical centers in West Haven and Newington became affiliated. 
• We have 10 sites of care statewide to include two campuses and six community clinics in addition to centers in Orange and off-campus in West Haven.
• In fiscal year 2023, we had an operating budget of $853 million with care to 58,853 veterans, 748,747 outpatient visits with 182 operating beds.
• In fiscal year 2023, there were 4,616 women veterans enrolled for care.
• Fisher House Connecticut opened in May 2018 providing cost-free, short-term accommodations to the families of veterans receiving inpatient care at the West Haven campus.
• VA Connecticut is one of the top 10 VA facilities in terms of research funding.
• Our New London clinic was named after John J. McGuirk, who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. His efforts to assist other veterans from southeastern Connecticut led to the VA naming a clinic in his honor. It has since become the busiest clinic in the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. 

Accreditations and achievements 

Our facilities and programs have received accreditation from: 

• The Joint Commission 

• Commission for the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) 

• College of American Pathologists (CAP) 

The VA Connecticut Healthcare System received the following awards: 

COMING SOON 

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