About us
At the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, we’re dedicated to improving the lives of Veterans and their families every day.
About the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System
The Eastern Colorado 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 12 locations in eastern Colorado and western Kansas: the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center (hospital) in Aurora, Colorado, and 11 community-based outpatient clinics. We also have a Community Referral and Resource Center, a 40-bed community living center (nursing home), and a 40-bed residential rehabilitation facility for homeless Veterans. To learn more about the services each Eastern Colorado health care location offers, visit the Eastern Colorado health services page.
The Eastern Colorado Healthcare System is one of the leading VA health care systems in the Rocky Mountain Region. We’re an innovative care center and medical research facility within the Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 (VISN 19). VISN 19 spans 540,000 square miles across 10 states. It includes medical centers in Aurora and Grand Junction, Colorado; Fort Harrison, Montana; Cheyenne and Sheridan, Wyoming; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Oklahoma City and Muskogee, Oklahoma; and 123 other health care sites. Learn more about VISN 19.
Research and development
We conduct research to discover knowledge, develop VA researchers and health care leaders, and create innovations that advance health care for Veterans and the nation. At the Eastern Colorado Medical Center Research Service, we offer Veterans the opportunity to participate in and benefit from our research. Our goal is to use research to promote better health and health care for all.
Major areas of biomedical laboratory and clinical sciences research include:
- Acute and chronic kidney disease
- Burn trauma
- Cardiology
- Diabetes and endocrinology
- Geriatrics
- Health services research
- Infectious diseases
- Mental health and suicide prevention
- Oncology and hematology
- Psychiatry and psychology
- Pulmonology
- Substance abuse and alternatives to opioids
Our research partners and programs include:
- Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care
- Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board
- Denver Research Institute
- Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center
- Mental Illness Research Education Clinical Center
We also participate in the VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Health Services Research and Development that trains the next generation of medical researchers.
Teaching and learning
The VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System is affiliated with 20 academic institutions, including the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Marcus Institute for Brain Health.
We train more than 120 residents, 450 medical students, and 370 nursing students at the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System every year. We’re proud of our partnerships with top schools and institutions that support the educational mission of the VA, like:
- University of Colorado School of Medicine
- Marcus Institute for Brain Health
- Regis University
- Community College of Denver
Through these partnerships we support residencies and other medical training programs in all major medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties, plus audiology, dietetics, nursing, orthopedic physical therapy, pharmacy, psychology, and social work.
Fast facts
- In 2019, we had 3,458 full-time employees, including 300 physicians and 776 registered nurses.
- Our 2019 operating budget was $683,436,435.
- In 2019, we had 1,068,816 outpatient visits and 6,696 total admissions; clinicians performed 4,877 surgical procedures.
- Our medical center has 227 beds distributed among internal medicine, surgery, rehabilitative medicine, and other services. That number also includes a 20-bed spinal cord injury and disorders unit and a 30-bed community living center (nursing home).
- We funded 422 research projects with a budget of more than $20 million in 2019.
- More than 800 volunteers worked 137,443 hours at our facilities in 2019. The value of those hours, plus all cash and non-cash donations, totaled $1,082,382.
Accreditation
Our facilities and programs have received accreditation from:
- American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
- American Board of Physical Therapy Residency and Fellowship Education (ABPTRFE) for our Physical Medicine Rehabilitation Services, Orthopedic Residency
- American College of Radiology (ACR)
- American Psychological Association (APA) for Behavioral Health (pre-doctoral internship, post-doctoral fellowship, MIRECC)
- American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) for Pharmacy Residencies (PGY1 Pharmacy Practice, PGY2 Geriatrics, PGY2 Psychiatry, PGY2 Health System Pharmacy Leadership Administration)
- Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC)
- College of American Pathologists (CAP)
- Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF)
- Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) for Dental Residency
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accreditation for both lab and mammography
- Joint Commission (JC)
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Annual reports and newsletters
Annual reports
The Fourteener
They say hindsight is 2020. When it comes to the past year, one thing is clear--our lives changed in ways we'll remember forever. In our ninth edition of The Fourteener, we look at some of the top highlights from the past year--where we started, how much we've learned and what's next in our journey toward ending the pandemic. Read the February 2021 issue.