About VA Tuscaloosa Healthcare System
The VA Tuscaloosa Healthcare 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 3 locations in western Alabama. Facilities include our Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, a community-based outpatient clinic in Selma, and a mobile clinic that serves Veterans in rural areas. To learn more about the services each location offers, visit the VA Tuscaloosa health services page.
The VA Tuscaloosa Healthcare System is one of the leading health care systems serving Veterans in the VA Southeast Network. We’re an innovative care center within the Veterans Integrated Service Network 7 (VISN 7), which includes medical centers and clinics in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina.
Learn more about VISN 7
Research and development
The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center has an active and growing research program, with 8 principal researchers and 30 active research projects. Its primary mission is to promote greater scientific, social, and medical discoveries to improve the quality of life for Veterans. 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.
Our research and development program increases our capacity to deliver advanced medical therapies and treatments to Veterans.
Major research areas include:
- Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia
- Psychotic symptoms associated with dementia
- Bipolar disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Major depression
- Generalized anxiety disorder in the elderly
- Prostate cancer prevention
- Smoking cessation for Veterans with PTSD
Teaching and learning
Our Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center is a teaching hospital that provides a full range of services, with state-of-the-art technology as well as education and research. We offer training in all major medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties to residents from the University of Alabama-Birmingham. We also offer associated health training in nursing, psychology, audiology, social work, dietetics, and pharmacy.
Each year, we train more than 100 medical residents and about 12 dental residents. We also train about 400 medical students every year, and more than 400 nursing students and associated health trainees.
Our primary affiliation is with the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa. We also have partnerships with the University of Alabama-Birmingham and other leading colleges, universities, and professional schools throughout the United States.
We’re proud of our partnerships with top institutions and organizations that support the educational mission of the VA.
Fast facts
- The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center was built in the early 1930s and started admitting and treating Veterans on July 15, 1932.
- The then-272 bed general medical and surgical hospital was converted to a neuro-psychiatric facility in 1940.
- At one time the hospital campus covered 404 acres. Today, our medical center is located on a beautiful 125-acre campus with 25 major buildings.
- The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 7, 2012.
- The city of Tuscaloosa is named In honor of the legendary "Black warrior," a great Native American chief who had a fateful encounter with Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto in 1540 somewhere in southwest Alabama. Settlers later named the place Tuscaloosa (from the Choctaw words "tushka" meaning warrior and "lusa" meaning black). The Black Warrior River is also named in his honor.
Accreditation and achievements
Our facilities and programs have received accreditation from the:
• Joint Commission
• College of American Pathologists
• Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities
• Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Programs
The VA Tuscaloosa Healthcare System has received the following awards:
- 2005 Alabama Excellence Award – Receive the highest level possible from the Alabama Productivity Center.
- 2006 Excellence for Continuous Productivity and Quality Improvement
- 2009 Outstanding Employer Award – Rated as one of the top psychiatric hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report
- Named a "Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality" in the 2019 Health Equality Index Report
Annual reports and newsletters
Annual reports
Coming soon!
Newsletters
Director's Quarterly Letter