Central Texas Veterans Health Care System-Olin E. Teague Veterans Medical Center-Temple Campus

The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System (CTVHCS) is a Joint Commission accredited, complexity level 1-A facility serving Veterans in 39 counties in Central Texas.  CTVHCS has two medical centers located in Temple and Waco; a stand-alone multispecialty clinic in Austin; five community based outpatient clinics in Brownwood, Cedar Park, College Station, Palestine and La Grange; two community living centers located at the Temple and Waco campuses; a domiciliary in Temple; a Blind Rehabilitation Unit in Waco (one of only 12 across the nation); a rehabilitation unit for severely mentally ill life enhancement in Waco; a 40-bed Psychosocial Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program in Waco (the only one in Texas); and an 15-bed residential Women’s Traumatic Rehabilitation Unit (one of only four across the nation).  In addition, CTVHCS has a Temple VA Clinic Annex in the community that houses five Patient Aligned Care Teams and a Central Texas Sleep Center in Killeen.  The CTVHCS campus in Temple is only 25 miles from the U.S. Army post at Fort Hood, Texas.  CTVHCS has two Vet Centers in its catchment area – one in Austin and one in Harker Heights/Killeen. The VISN 17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans and the Health Resource Center Pharmacy Customer Call Center are both located on the Waco Campus as well as offices from the Austin VA Automation Center and the Austin VA Finance Center. CTVHCS serves a Veteran population of more than 252,000, covers 35,243 square miles and 11 congressional districts in its 39 counties.

Opened in November 2014 is a 16-bed Central Texas Sleep Clinic in Killeen jointly operated by CTVHCS and Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center.

The main CTVHCS Campus is at the Olin E. Teague Veterans' Medical Center in Temple, Texas. On the Temple Campus is a full-service, 90-bed teaching hospital that serves as the medical/surgical referral center for all CTVHCS campuses as well as providing outpatient services to Veterans across the 39-county service catchment area. Also located at the Temple Campus is a 187-bed domiciliary, a 70-bed Community Living Center (CLC) which includes a hospice unit. A 160-bed State Veterans Home also resides on the Temple Campus grounds as well as an $11.5 million VA Research Institute which attracts world-class researchers to the Central Texas area.  The Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Waco, Texas, was named to honor Doris "Dorie" Miller, the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II.

Research Service at CTVHCS supports the national goal of advancing medical research programs that address Veterans' needs. CTVHCS participates in research supported by the VA Office of Research and Development, as well as from external sources such as Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, non-profit foundations, and pharmaceutical companies. Forty-three principal investigators work on more than 131 active human, animal, or safety studies at CTVHCS.

Currently CTVHCS has 125 separate affiliation agreements for 240 training programs from across the country. We train just over 1,500 trainees per year. The majority of these are for Associated Health Programs—nursing, physician assistants, psychology, radiology techs, social workers, etc. Although the trainees come from across the country, the majority are from local programs involving the University of Texas in Austin, the University of Texas in Arlington, University of Mary Hardin Baylor, Temple College, Central Texas College, and McLennan Community College.

Besides Associated Health, CTVHCS is involved in medical student training as well. We are currently associated with one medical school: Texas A&M College of Medicine. Members of our staff are involved in the training of all four years to include the first two years of basic science but especially the clinical third- and fourth-year medical students.  We expect soon to be involved with the new medical school in Austin—Dell Medical School UT Austin.

CTVHCS is affiliated with four separate organizations for the training of Residents and Fellows: Texas A&M College of Medicine/ Baylor Scott & White Memorial Hospital, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas in Austin affiliated with Seton Healthcare Network, Darnall Army Hospital and the Texas Department of State Health Services. CTVHCS has increased the number of Residents and Fellows rotating from 25 per month to 108 per month over the last several years. We have also increased our number of Residents and Fellows positions authorized from 43 to 111 which will assure growth for the next several years. We are authorized for two Chief Residents in Quality and Safety (one in Internal Medicine and one in Psychiatry) and a Chief Resident in Internal Medicine.

We have added totally new training programs in Infectious Disease, Endocrinology, Preventive Medicine, ENT, Cardiology, Dermatology, Plastic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Orthopedics, Pathology, Radiology, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation as well as added additional positions in Pulmonary, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, Family Medicine, and Neurology. Fellowship rotations for Texas A&M/Baylor Scott and White Nephrology Fellows are scheduled to begin in summer 2017-2018.

Annually, more than 250 Residents and Fellows and more than 200 medical students are trained at CTVHCS by over 100 VA Attending physicians with faculty appointments.

Clinics:

In addition to our main facilities in Temple and Waco, we have a multi-specialty outpatient clinic in Austin, the Temple Annex PACT Clinic, and the Central Texas Sleep Center in Killeen.

We offer services at the five community-based outpatient clinics. These clinics are located in:

• Brownwood
• Bryan-College Station 
• Cedar Park
• LaGrange
• Palestine