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
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