About us
At South Texas Veterans Health Care System, we’re dedicated to improving the lives of Veterans and their families every day.
About South Texas Veterans Health Care System
The South Texas Veterans Health Care 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 17 locations serving southern Texas. Facilities include our Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio, our Kerrville VA Medical Center, and 15 community-based outpatient clinics in San Antonio, New Braunfels, and Victoria. We also maintain a mobile clinic that operates out of the Kerrville VA Medical Center. To learn more about the services each location offers, visit the VA South Texas health services page.
The South Texas Veterans Health Care System is one of the leading health care systems serving Veterans in the VA Heart of Texas Health Care Network. We’re an innovative care center within the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN 17), which includes medical centers and clinics in Texas and New Mexico.
Research and development
At South Texas Veterans Health Care 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.
Established in 1982, our Bartter Research Unit (BRU) is a collaborative effort between our Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The BRU dedicates 6,000 square feet of space for patient-oriented studies involving both Veterans and non-Veterans.
Established in 1987, the San Antonio Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC), a Center of Excellence, serves elderly Veterans in central and south Texas.
Major areas of research include:
- Metabolic and inflammatory disorders
- Metabolic disease management
- Frailty
- Cognitive and sensory impairment
- Oral health in the elderly
- Health care utilization and quality assessment
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Sarcopenia
- Heart failure
- Parkinson’s disease
Teaching and learning
The Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital 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 provide professional training in most major medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties.
Our primary affiliation is with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. STVHCS has 157 active affiliation agreements to date.
We’re proud of our partnerships with top institutions and organizations that support the educational mission of the VA.
Fast facts
- South Texas Veterans Health Care System serves more than 115,000 Veterans and has one of the largest coverage areas in the VA health care system.
- In 2021, South Texas Veterans Health Care System completed more than 1.4 million outpatient visits.
- Our hospital in San Antonio is named for Audie L. Murphy, our most decorated combat hero in World War II. Born into a large family of sharecroppers in Hunt County, Murphy acted in more than 40 feature films after serving in World War II.
Accreditations and achievements
Our facilities and programs have received accreditation from the Joint Commission.
South Texas Veterans Health Care System has received the following awards:
- Pathway to Excellence designation from the American Nursing Credentialing Center. STVHCS is the first VA in Texas to receive this designation and recently received its second designation in 2023.
- CARF Accredited
- Purple Heart Designation. STVHCS is the third VA health care system and first VA hospital in the nation to receive this designation.
- High Reliability Organization (HRO) Flagship
- Whole Health Flagship