City: Memphis, TN

Category: Health Care

Telephone: (901) 523-8990

Address: 1030 Jefferson Avenue

Description: The city’s VA hospital, with 322 beds and 1,500 employees, includes one of the best facilities for treating spinal-cord injuries in the entire VA system. Before moving to the medical district in the 1960s, local VA medical facilities were concentrated at Kennedy VA Hospital on Shotwell Road. Some people thought the street’s name unfortunate and thus worked to get it renamed Getwell Road, which it is still called today. VA Memphis treats more than 35,000 patients each year, almost entirely on an outpatient basis. The hospital offers a full range of services to military veterans, many of whom have no place else to turn. The hospital is staffed primarily by University of Tennessee physicians, and many of the clinics there are operated by advanced-practice nurses who are also on faculty at the UT College of Nursing. For a variety of reasons, veterans account for a disproportionate number of homeless persons and those with alcohol and drug addictions. VA Memphis has several programs specifically designed to find and treat these veterans.