History

Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital

The Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital (ALMMVH), named after the nation’s most decorated World War II hero, is a quaternary care facility, which is affiliated with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA).  Comprehensive health care is provided through acute medical, surgical, mental health, physical medicine and rehabilitation, geriatric, and primary care services.  Comprised of a Spinal Cord Injury Center, a Community Living Center, a Domiciliary, and a Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (SARRTP).  ALMMVH provides quaternary services including bone marrow transplantation, open-heart surgery, magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography.  As a Level II Research facility ALMMVH has projects that include aging, cardiac surgery, cancer, diabetes and HIV.  The facility has one of three National Institutes of Health sponsored clinical research centers in the VA. In addition, the Geriatric Research, Education & Clinical Center (GRECC) is a “Center of Excellence.”

• In 1963, President John F. Kennedy first approved the San Antonio location for a Federal Hospital.
• In 1965, San Antonio Medical Foundation officially deeded to the Federal Government the 33.3 acre site upon which Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital now stands.
• In December 1970, the hospital was named by Public Law 92-183 for Audie L. Murphy, a native Texan. At that time, this was the only hospital in the entire VA system to be named after a soldier.
• The first patient was admitted to the hospital on October 29, 1973.
• In May 1975, an eight foot, one ton bronze statue of Audie L. Murphy, in battle dress was dedicated to the hospital.
• In 1983, Frederic C. Bartter General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) was activated. The GCRC is a highly specialized patient unit that provides medical scientists a venue for clinical research.
• In 1989, the Biomedical Research Foundation of South Texas was established to support the mission of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System.
• In 1990, construction began on the Spinal Cord Injury Center, and then dedicated in 1991.
• In 2011, VA’s fifth Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center was dedicated. The state-of-the-art, $66 million inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation center will treat Veterans and active duty Servicemembers with multiple, traumatic injuries.  
• In 2013, South Texas Veterans Health Care System held the official dedication ceremony of its Fisher House.

Kerrville VA Medical Center

The Kerrville VA Medical Center is located 65 miles northwest of San Antonio, provides primary care, some specialty care, geriatric evaluation and management, palliative care, and long-term care services with a Community Living Center.  Outpatient clinics offer primary care and some specialty care while sharing resources with each other and their respective communities.  When required, Veterans are referred to ALMMVH or Kerrville VA Medical Center for specialty care including medicine, surgery, neuropsychiatry, rehabilitation, spinal cord injury, and long-term care services. 

The Kerrville VA Medical Center is full of rich history that spans as far back as World War I.

• Discharged Veterans returning to Texas at the end of World War I in 1919 were suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases. Spurred by this emergency, in November 1919, a group of Kerr County citizens with the aid of the Benevolent War Risk Society, American Legion State Commander, and Texas State Health Officer, raised one-half million dollars to construct a hospital in Kerrville to care for World War I veterans.
• April 20, 1920, Louis and A.C. Schreiner donated 790 acres to the Society and construction of the American Legion Tuberculosis Hospital began that year. Before construction was completed, the Society’s funds were depleted, and the project was sold for one dollar on January 14, 1921 to the American Legion, Department of Texas. The project may have ended at that point had it not been for the American Legion, Daughters of the Confederacy and State Senator Julius Real. In exchange for the deed of the project to the State of Texas, Senator Real persuaded the Texas Legislature to appropriate 1.5 million dollars to continue construction of a 600-bed hospital to be called The American Legion Memorial Hospital.
• Spring of 1923, a committee of Texans arranged for the US Veterans Bureau to lease the hospital.  On May 4, 1923, the completed facility, containing 15 buildings, was leased by the U.S. Veterans Bureau from the Texas State Board of Control. 
• July 1, 1923, the Veterans Bureau opened to the 1st patient and the 93rd in the nation dedicated to the care of Veterans was operational. On December 31, 1925, the Veterans Bureau purchased the facility from the State of Texas for $1,182,000. On July 21, 1930, by order of President Herbert Hoover, the Veterans Administration was created, and the facility operated under that name. With the elevation to Cabinet Level on March 15, 1989, the Department of Veterans Affairs now operates the hospital.
• The present Medical Center stands on 70 acres, which includes the 1.7 acres VA National Cemetery. Of the original 790 acres tract, the VA has donated 678 acres back to the community to include: 500 acres to the Texas Lions League for Crippled Children’s Home; 116 acres for the Texas Hill Country Development Foundation; 72 acres to the Kerrville Independent School District; and 32 acres for various local and state transactions.
• On December 19, 1947, dedication ceremonies were held for the main hospital building, which is still in use today. With the addition of a nursing home unit (now called Community Living Center) dedicated on December 5, 1984, the center expanded its services to our veterans.  
• In March 15, 1995, the Kerrville VA Medical Center and the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital merged to form the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS). Along with the Kerrville Campus and the Audie L. Murphy Campus, STVHCS also consist of Victoria, and numerous Outpatient Clinics (OPCs) and Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) in San Antonio.