About us

About the VA Puget Sound Health Care System

VA Puget Sound Health Care System provides Veterans 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 11 locations in Western Washington, serving a 14-county area around Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest. Facilities include  American Lake and Seattle main campuses, seven outpatient clinics (Edmonds, Everett, Mount Vernon, Olympia, Port Angeles, Puyallup and Silverdale), a Community Resource & Referral Center (Georgetown neighborhood in Seattle) and a Homeless Primary Care Team in Renton. We also have a Mobile Medical Unit to support rural care needs.

VA Puget Sound also has nine nationally recognized centers of excellence (in areas from limb-loss prevention and prosthetic engineering to primary care education and substance abuse treatment) as well as five regional care hubs (Blind Rehabilitation Center, Regional Spinal Cord Injury Unit, Regional Amputation Center, Marrow Transplant Unit, Lung Transplant Program and Polytrauma Network Site) which expand our services across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.

To learn more about the services each location offers, visit the VA Puget Sound health services page.

VA Puget Sound has a reputation for excellence, innovation and extraordinary care for Veterans--our nation’s heroes. We strive to lead the nation in quality, efficiency and public service through our proven record of innovation and extraordinary care of Veterans.

VA Puget Sound is one of the leading health care systems  in the VA Integrated Services Network (VISN 20) serving the northwest. 

Research and development

At VA Puget Sound's Seattle and American Lake campuses, 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. 

VA Puget Sound maintains the VA’s fourth-largest research and development program, reflecting our commitment to provide the highest-quality care to Veterans. Our patients have access to the latest pharmaceutical therapies and diagnostic techniques. The quality of “routine” care is enriched by the personal commitment of staff to increase their professional capabilities and to actively contribute to the advancement of their fields.

Major research areas include: 

• Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and multiple blast exposures
• Memory improvement and Alzheimer’s disease
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and deployment health
• Parkinson’s disease
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Substance abuse
• Lower limb prosthetics
• Genomics
• Health services

Visit our list of centers of excellence and special emphasis programs

Teaching and learning

VA Puget Sound takes pride in our 70-year history of positive advancements and cutting-edge academic partnership and achievements that continue to improve health outcomes for the Veterans we care for. Our academic collaborations build on our passion to learn and power to heal.

In academic year 2021, VA Puget Sound trained over 1,900 health care professionals—from physicians, dentists and nurses to psychologists and social workers to highlight a few. Through its more than 130 active associated health, graduate medical and dental education and, nursing undergraduate, graduate, and research affiliations in Pacific Northwest and beyond, VA Puget Sound offers innovation and progressive training. And its collaborations with the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Research are integral to ongoing discoveries.

VA Puget Sound began partnering with the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1951, primarily in the fields of medical, dental, nursing, mental health and social work. These future professionals are the nation’s health care workforce pipeline who will go on to care for Veterans and other patients in urban and rural communities across the U.S.  

During the pandemic, VA facilities such as VA Puget Sound worked with medical schools, universities, and colleges across the country to utilize health professions trainees to care for Veterans virtually and in-person while completing their training requirements.  VA Puget Sound continues to advance health professions training by adding new rotations here with Madigan Army Medical Center and securing a new residency in Neurologic Physical Therapy.  The number of physician residents training across the VA increased by more than 2,000 and, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, applications to medical schools have increased by 18 percent for the 2021 academic year.

Professional training in most major medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties is available, including residencies in:

• Audiology
• Speech pathology
• Dietetics
• Health services research and development
• Radiology
• Optometry
• Podiatry
• Occupational therapy
• Physical therapy
• Recreation therapy
• Psychology
• Health information management
• Information technology
• Medical informatics
• Dentistry

Fast facts

• Each year, VA Puget Sound supports approximately 1 million outpatient visits, admits 4,700 inpatients, performs 4,100 surgeries and conducts 173,500 virtual care visits.
• VA Puget Sound’s Women’s Health Program remains the largest in VISN 20 (the VA’s Northwest Network), with over 17,000 women Veterans (and growing!) enrolled for care.
• VA Puget Sound maintains relationships with Veteran Service Organization (VSO) partners and brief VSO representatives on changes that affect Veterans’ care. Our Veterans Advisory Council meets quarterly and includes stakeholders from Veterans’ groups.
• VA Puget Sound's Fisher House (Seattle campus) provides a cost-free “Home Away from Home” for Veterans, active-duty service members, their families and caregivers, while they are hospitalized or receiving care.  Guests have come from 48 states around the nation, and 14 countries around the globe.
• VA Puget Sound launched VA Ventures June 2020 to develop innovative ideas and diffuse them nationally to provide superior care and the best health outcomes to our Veterans. VA Ventures' major focus areas are: (1) Health care product development using advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D and bioprinting; and (2) Leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and immersive technologies as digital solutions to health care challenges.
• VA Puget Sound provides inpatient blind rehabilitation for Veterans and active-duty service members with visual impairments from VA’s Northwest Network (VISN 20) and Montana.

Accreditations and achievements

Underscoring its commitment to safe, quality care, VA Puget Sound accreditation, includes:

• The Joint Commission Gold Seal
• ALS Association Certified Treatment Center of Excellence

• American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Target:

  Stroke Gold Plus and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll quality achievement awards

• Commission on Cancer Care Accredited
• CARF accredited programs:
• Community Housing and Outreach Services
• Community Reintegration Services (employment services)
• Mental Health Intensive Case Management
• Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Program (domiciliary)
  • Homeless Care
  • PTSD
  • Substance Abuse
  • Compensated Work Therapy/Transitional Residence
• Pain Program
• Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center
• Rehabilitation Care Services
  • Inpatient Rehabilitation
  • Amputation Specialty Program
  • Stroke Specialty Program
  • Blind Rehabilitation
• Spinal Cord Injury Unit

Patient guide, annual reports and newsletters

Patient guide

Annual reports

Newsletters

Important things to know at VA Puget Sound today

Helping you stay informed about programs and services that matter!  

• NEW VA PUGET SOUND PATIENT GUIDE: We are happy to announce our 2024 Patient Guide. Our new comprehensive resource will help you navigate the services and support we offer at VA Puget Sound, helping you make informed decisions about your health. Our Patient Guide was a result, in part, of Veteran feedback. As we continue to grow and adapt to better meet your need, we will rely greatly on your feedback to continuously improve our resources and services.

  Copies of the guide will soon be available at all our health care facilities. Be sure to pick one up!

• GET READY FOR VA’S SIGN-IN TRANSITION: In 2025, the VA is moving to two secure sign-in options (Login.gov and ID.me) for all VA websites and apps—including the My HealtheVet patient health portal. After January 31, 2025 you will no longer be able to sign in using the My HealtheVet option. And after September 30, 2025, you will no longer be able to sign in using the DS Logon option. You’ll still be able to use your My HealtheVet health portal—you’ll just need to sign in to it with a Login.gov or ID.me account. Learn more about how to prepare for this change.
• FREE WI-FI:  Free Wi-Fi is available during your visits! With the exception of our Mount Vernon Community which comes on-line early October, all of our health care sites now offer guest Wi-Fi. To access:  Network: Guest-VA and Password: Welcome1 
• NEW VA TELE-EMERGENCY CARE A PHONE CALL AWAY: Don’t know whether you should go to the emergency department or urgent care? VA Puget Sound, Portland and Boise have taken that a step further by making getting emergency and urgent care easier for more than a quarter million enrolled Veterans in those areas through VA Tele-Emergency Care (Tele-EC).  Veterans enrolled to VA Puget Sound can access the service for non-life-threatening urgent and emergency care by simply calling the Northwest Veterans Integrated Services Network—VISN 20—Clinical Contact Center at  (press 3), and they may be able to talk with a Tele-EC physician. Tele-EC can help treat conditions such as abdominal pain, dizziness, head congestion, severe cough, mild shortness of breath, sprains, back pain and joint pain/stiffness, pink eye, urinary tract infections, blood sugar concerns, and other non-life-threatening concerns. While clinical triage nurses are available 24/7 to guide veterans to the appropriate level of care, Tele-EC is only available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT (including holidays)—when the peak calls from Veterans come to the Clinical Contact Center. For life-threatening emergencies, always call 911.  
• AMERICAN LAKE BUILDING 61 OPEN FOR BUSINESS: We are delighted to welcome our patients back to Building 61 which was closed earlier this year due to weather-related damaged. Locations of our services:
  • Addiction Treatment Center: 2nd Floor  
  • Clozapine Clinic: 3rd Floor  
  • Mental Health Clinic: 3rd Floor  
  • Mental Health Injection Clinic: 3rd Floor   
  • Pharmacy Methadone Dispensing: 1st Floor  
  • Psychiatric Assessment and Clinical Center/Same Day Access: 3rd Floor
  • Neuropsychology Testing: 1st Floor  
  • PTSD Outpatient Clinic: 1st Floor  
  • Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: 3rd Floor  

Note: Our Pain Clinic remains in Building 5. Questions? Mental Health at and Pain Clinic at

• VISITATION POLICY:

  Masks & Visitation Policy:

  • Masks for visitors (to include children aged 2-years and older) are optional except while visiting areas designated as high-risk.
  • No children under 2 permitted in high-risk areas.
  • Visitors must be COVID-19 negative.
  • Children under 18 must remain with accompanying adult. Staff will not attend to visiting children nor can children be left alone during care visit.

  Visitors:

  Emergency Room:

  • 1 adult visitor only
  • Children case-by-case

  Inpatient Rooms:

  • 1 adult visitor at a time
  • Children under 18 permitted (not in COVID positive patient rooms)
  • Children under 2-years-old not permitted in multi-patient rooms (because they cannot mask)
  • Visitation limited to 2 hours at a time

  Outpatient:

  • Children under 18 permitted
  • Please wait in designated waiting areas.
  • Veterans and visitors arriving for Same Day procedures that require a designated driver will check in as directed in their pre-procedure calls.
• SERVICE ANIMALS:  Service Animals are welcome at VA Puget Sound Health Care System. VHA Directive 1188, Animals on Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Property includes clarification that a service animal can only be a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks to assist a person with a disability. You can learn more about the latest updates to our service animal policy by reading Memorandum RI-014. And you can report any unsafe behaviors with any animals to VA Police Dispatch at 206-746-2899.

• Walk-in Vaccines: We offer walk-in Centralized Vaccine Clinics at Seattle (Building 100, East Clinic check-in) and American Lake (Building 81, Primary Care check-in), Monday through Friday (excluding holidays) from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. These vaccines are offered: COVID-19, HPV (Gardasil), Hep A/B (Twingrix), shingles, Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis), pneumococcal and RSV (with doctor’s orders).
• Ways you can refill your VA prescriptions:  
  • Online through My HealtheVet: You must have a My HealtheVet Premium account (it is free), have registered as a VA Patient or CHAMPVA beneficiary and have a prescription written by a VA or authorized community care provider that that has previously been filled at a VA pharmacy.
  • Telephone Call: The phone number of your local VA pharmacy can be found on your prescription label. To order refills by phone, you will need the prescription number (shown as RX # on the prescription label) and your Social Security Number.
  • Mobile App: VA Health and Benefits mobile app (https://mobile.va.gov/app/va-health-and-benefits). Once you download the app, create a log in (if needed), login, select Health at the bottom of the app, and then select Prescriptions to manage your refills. Questions? .
  • By Mail: Most VA prescriptions can be sent to you by the VA Mail Order Pharmacy. VA Pharmacy provides a refill request form  with your medications.
• Must file travel claims within 30 days: When the national emergency related to COVID ended, it brought back the 30-day requirement to file travel claims which had been on hiatus since the pandemic. To get started on your claim, visit access.va.gov and select the Veteran Travel Claim Entry icon. From there, you’ll be able log on using a DS-Logon Level 2 account, with a VA PIV card, with ID.me or with your My HealtheVet credentials. While you can still file a VA Form 10-3542 and drop if off at one of main campuses, filing online is encouraged as it is the fastest way to be reimbursed. When a Veteran files a paper claim, the Beneficiary Travel Team must manually load and process that claim in BTSSS for the Veteran.  This takes significantly longer to process this way, leading to substantial backlogs, increasing the wait time to be paid for all Veterans filing this way.  More information about VA travel pay reimbursement can be found here: VA Travel Pay Reimbursement | Veterans Affairs
  
  Instructions for using the Beneficiary Travel Self Service System
  
  Sign in with your existing Login.gov, ID.me, DS Logon, or My HealtheVet account. If you don’t have any of these accounts, you can create a free Login.gov or ID.me account now - VA Travel Pay Reimbursement | Veterans Affairs
• Toxic Exposure Legislation | PACT Act:  Want to know how the toxic exposure legislation will affect your benefits? What does it mean to have a presumptive condition for toxic exposure? Want to file a benefits claim?  Click here for our PACT Act Quick Guide, Call 800-698-2411 (TTY: 711) or visit https://www.va.gov/resources/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits/