Olin E Teague Veterans Center

Description

The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System CTVHCS consists of two hospitals located in Temple and Waco one standalone clinic in Austin four community based outpatient clinics in Brownwood Cedar Park College Station and Palestine two nursing homes in Temple and Waco one domiciliary in Temple a Blind Rehabilitation Unit in Waco and two patient rehabilitation units for posttraumatic stress disorder and severely mentally ill life enhancement in Waco

All facilities are VA staffed A fifth community based outpatient clinic located at the old Marlin VA Hospital was closed for emergency use during Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005 and the hospital is in the process of being transferred to the State of Texas for use as a hospital for Texas Department of Corrections prisoners

CTVHCS includes one of the newest VA inpatient medicalsurgical hospitals after opening in 1998 in Temple CTVHCS is a major provider of health care for combat veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom It has one of the largest inpatient psychiatric facilities in the country which was officially named a Mental Health Center of Excellence in 2006 after legislation passed by US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2005

The Olin E Teague hospital in Temple is a tertiary care facility It is a teaching hospital providing a full range of patient care services with stateoftheart technology as well as education and research Comprehensive health care is provided through primary care tertiary care and longterm care in areas of medicine surgery psychiatry physical medicine and rehabilitation neurology oncology dentistry geriatrics and extended care The Temple campus also includes a 408bed Domiciliary and a 160bed State Veterans Home The Temple hospital is the only campus with an Emergency Room that operates around the clock

The Waco hospital is a psychiatric facility which provides inpatient psychiatric care nursing home care to psycho geriatric patients and includes a Post Traumatic Residential Treatment Program PRRTP It houses a 44bed residential unit designed to treat veterans in the Serious Mental Illness Life Enhancement SMILE program which offers rehabilitation and recovery services including enhanced services for seriously mentally ill veterans with substance abuse problems The primary focus of this program is to improve the quality of life for veterans promoting independence and recovery