About us
At the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System, we’re dedicated to improving the lives of Veterans and their families every day.
About VA Salt Lake City health care
The VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System provides you with outstanding health care, trains America’s future health care providers, and conducts medical research that improves Veterans’ health.
Health care and services
We provide you with health care services at 11 locations in Utah, Idaho, and Nevada: our George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City and 10 community-based outpatient clinics. Our other health care facilities include:
- Valor House – a 72-room home for Veterans transitioning from “homeless to hopeful”
- Fisher House – a home away from home where Veterans’ families can stay, free of charge, while their loved one receives treatment.
To learn more about the services each location offers, visit the Salt Lake City health services page.
VA Salt Lake City is one of the leading health care systems serving Veterans in the Rocky Mountain Region. We’re an innovative care center within the Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 (VISN 19), which spans 540,000 square miles across 10 states. VISN 19 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.
Research and development
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.
Major research areas include:
- Orthopedics and prosthetics
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI)
- Suicide prevention
- Addiction and substance abuse
- Gulf War illness
- Cancer
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Kidney disease
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig’s disease
Teaching and learning
Education is a strong focus at the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System. We train some of the best doctors and nurses in the health care industry. We’re proud of our partnerships with leading colleges and universities throughout our region and across the United States, including the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and Westminster College.
Through these relationships we train more than 500 students, interns, and residents every year in most major medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties. We also offer special fellowship programs in ambulatory care and medical informatics, plus associated health care training programs in:
- Audiology
- Dentistry
- Dietetics
- Occupational and physical rehabilitation
- Pharmacy
- Physician assistant
- Podiatry
- Psychology
- Social work
Fast facts
- In 2021, we had 2,739 employees and treated 72,303 Veterans.
- Veterans completed 703,109 outpatient visits at our facilities in 2021.
- Of the Veterans we treated in 2021, 5,519 were women, 31,786 served in the Persian Gulf, 27,029 during the Vietnam War, 2,911 during the Korean conflict, 803 in World War II, and 7,313 post-Vietnam.
- Our 2021 operating budget was more than $743 million, and our research budget was $42 million.
- Our medical center has 121 beds.
- The George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center is 1 of 5 VA heart transplant centers in the United States.
- We are a flagship facility for the VA Whole Health program, which empowers and equips Veterans to take control of their health and well-being and to live their lives to the fullest.
- VA Salt Lake City is the National Telemental Health Hub providing mental health services to our most rural Veterans across the country.
Accreditation and awards
Our facilities and programs have received accreditation from:
- The Joint Commission
- American Psychological Association
- American Society of Health System Pharmacists
The VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System received the following awards:
- 2016 VHA Patient Safety Gold Cornerstone Award for Excellence
- 2016 VA Secretary’s Award for the National Veterans Wheelchair Games