City: Oklahoma City, OK

Category: Health Care

Telephone: (405) 270-0501

Address: 921 Northeast 13

Description: The Oklahoma City VA Medical Center opened its doors on Sept 14, 1953, as a 488-bed hospital. Since that time, the hospital has grown to nearly 1 million square feet with 168 private and semiprivate rooms. It receives referrals from around the state and serves 48 Oklahoma counties and two north central Texas counties with a veteran population of over 225,000. The VA is located on the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campus.The VA recently developed an animal therapy program to assist stroke patients as well as other patients. It also successfully completed its first cochlear implant, a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf. In 2008, the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center treated 6,516 inpatients and 441,322 outpatients. Overall, they treated 49,694 unique patients, which means if a patient came for several visits, he or she was only counted once.The VA is a teaching hospital, providing a full range of patient-care services, with state-of-the-art technology as well as education and research. It offers many educational classes for patients in all treatment areas and it occasionally offers seminars and workshops that are promoted within the hospital and through the Web site.