Two Tennessee VA Medical Centers to Merge Services

The Department of Veterans Affairs today announced the merger of VA medical centers in Nashville and Murfreesboro. 

Both facilities will remain open. The Alvin C. York center in Murfreesboro will retain its historic name. This merger will enable VA officials to enhance services to veterans, streamline operations, reduce administrative costs and build upon the recognized strengths of each facility. 

The Alvin C. York VA Medical Center (VAMC) has state-of-the-art extended-care programs and psychiatric expertise. The Nashville VAMC is a major transplant center, receiving patients from across the country and performing a large portion of all VA heart, liver, kidney, lung and bone marrow transplants in the last fiscal year. 

VA officials already provide a free bus service between Nashville and Murfreesboro for veterans. 

Today, the Department also announced plans to establish a new Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the new, integrated Nashville/Alvin C. York facility. 

“The GRECC program is widely recognized within the medical community as a national resource for preparing physicians and other health-care professionals to work with the problems of aging,” said VA Acting Under Secretary for Health Dr. Thomas L. Garthwaite. “Establishing this new center will enhance the health care for aging veterans at both locations.” 

The merger follows the successful experience of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which operates the nation’s largest health-care system. In recent years, VA officials have adjusted the missions of other medical centers to improve patient care and access and to reduce administrative costs, thereby making more money available for health-care services.