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 10 locations in Western Washington, serving a 14-county area around Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest. Facilities include our Seattle and American Lake campuses, seven outpatient clinics in Edmonds, Everett, Mount Vernon, Olympia, Port Angeles, Puyallup, and Silverdale and two Community Resource & Referral Centers in Renton and Seattle for Veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. We also have a Mobile Medical Unit to support rural care needs.

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 serving Veterans in the VA Northwest Health Network. We’re an innovative care center within the Veterans Integrated Service Network 20 (VISN 20), which includes health care system in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

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

Annual reports and newsletters

Annual reports

Newsletters

Important things to know at VA Puget Sound today

Helping you stay informed about programs and services that matter!

• Women Veterans Town Hall on March 29 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.:  Get updates about women’s health programs, PACT Act and more. How to participate: call 866-478-3406, connect to access.live/VAPugetSound or visit facebook.com/vapugetsound  
• Masks still required: While the CDC is loosening COVID-19 masking guidelines, the requirement in health care facilities has not changed.  All masking guidance and practices remain unchanged at all VA Puget Sound care sites and must be worn at all times. Wearing mask in health care facilities is driven by the health and safety needs of our patients and staff, proximity to or direct care provided to our most vulnerable patients, and the need to model and respect the care needs of those we care for.
  
  As the pandemic shifts and our world and community adapt to those shifts, we continue to reevaluate our practices and needs with Veteran, patient and staff safety always at the center of the policies we have in place to protect them.

• Attention Seattle Campus Staff and Visitors: Employee South Parking Lot construction to close up to 25 parking spots at a time from March 13 through May 19, 2023.
  
  A maximum of 25 parking spots (lots C, D and E) will be closed in our Employee South Parking Lot as we make improvements to our campus and enhance security for staff and visitors alike. Thank for your understanding and patience!

• The PACT Act: This historic new law that expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances. This new law empowers VA to provide generations of Veterans – and their survivors – with the care and benefits they have earned.
  
  Want to know how this 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/
• Vaccines: Flu and COVID-19 bivalent booster shots vaccines are available as part of regularly scheduled primary and specialty care appointments. Please contact your primary care provider for more information.