Congress created the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1865 in response to the high number of Civil War casualties.

[20] Beginning in the mid-1990s VHA underwent what the agency characterizes as a major transformation aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of care it provides to its patients.

That transformation included eliminating underutilized inpatient beds and facilities, expanding outpatient clinics, and restructuring eligibility rules.

A major focus of the transformation was the tracking of a number of performance indicators—including quality-of-care measures—and holding senior managers accountable for improvements in those measures.

Core issues included advancements in technology and biomedical knowledge, aging and socioeconomically disadvantaged Medicare patients, coordinating care, and rising healthcare costs.

Some of these indicators included chronic disease quality, prevention performance, patient satisfaction ratings, and utilization management.

On June 24, 2014, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma, and a medical doctor, released a report called Friendly Fire: Death, Delay, and Dismay at the VA which detailed the actions and misconduct of employees of the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The report is based on yearlong investigations conducted by Senator Coburn's office on Veterans Health Administration facilities across the nation.

[32] However, a VA Inspector General's report issued on August 26, 2014, reported that six, not forty, veterans had died experiencing “clinically significant delays” while on waiting lists to see a VA doctor, and in each of these six cases, “we are unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the deaths of these veterans.”[33][34] With the Choice Act in place, wait times (and ultimately care) at VHA facilities began to improve.

According to a study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2014, the average wait times to receive health care were 22.5 for VHA and 18.7 days for the private sector.

1393), which permanently codified the Choice Act features access (wait time and travel distance) standards into a new Veterans Community Care Program.

The VHA support for research and residency/fellowship training programs has made the VA system a leader in the fields of geriatrics,[44][45] spinal cord injuries,[46] Parkinson's disease VA.gov | Veterans Affairs, and palliative care.

The VHA has devoted many years of research into the health effects of the herbicide Agent Orange used by military forces in the Vietnam War.

[48] VHA is especially praised for its efforts in developing a low cost open source electronic medical records system VistA[49] which can be accessed remotely (with secure passwords) by health care providers.

The system, which has been adopted by all veterans' hospitals and clinics and continuously improved by users, has cut the number of dispensing errors in half at some facilities and saved thousands of lives.

Doctors can call up patient records, order prescriptions, view X-rays or graph a chart of risk factors and medications to decide treatments.

Patients have a home page that have boxes for allergies and medications, records every visit, call and note, and issues prompts reminding doctors to make routine checks.

The VHA has devoted many years of research into the health effects of the herbicide Agent Orange used by military forces in Vietnam.

To be eligible for VA health care benefit programs one must have served in the active military, naval or air service and separated under any condition other than dishonorable.

Retirees from military service, veterans with service-connected injuries or conditions rated by VA, and Purple Heart recipients are within the higher priority groups.

Current and former members of the Reserves and the National Guard who were called to active duty (other than for monthly drills and annual training) by a federal executive order may be eligible for VA health care benefits.

Mental health treatment includes evaluation and assistance for issues such as depression, mood, and anxiety disorders; intimate partner and domestic violence; elder abuse or neglect; parenting and anger management; marital, caregiver, or family-related stress; and post-deployment adjustment or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Additional awareness of medical resources available to veterans can help to erase the stigma of seeking mental health treatment.

Those who were prisoners of war (POWs) and those whose service-connected disabilities have been rated at 100 percent or who are receiving the 100 percent rate by reason of individual unemployability (IU) are eligible for any needed dental care, as are those veterans actively engaged in a 38 USC Chapter 31 vocational rehabilitation program and veterans enrolled who may be homeless and receiving care under VHA Directive 2007–039.

The Vet Center Program was established by Congress in 1979 in response to the readjustment problems that a significant number of Vietnam-era veterans were continuing to experience after their return from combat.

In subsequent years, Congress extended eligibility to all combat veterans who served on active duty from previous conflicts.

has a medical condition that requires a special mode of transportation and travel is pre-authorized, as are certain non-veterans when related to care of a veteran (caregivers, attendants and donors).

[61] However, it is believed that early detection is helpful towards allowing victims to access much needed resources earlier and thus the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggests providers especially regularly screen women of childbearing age for IPV.

[63] Early detection is key to providing effective support systems to victims in the armed forces and reducing potential negative health consequences that are associated with such violence.

[68] According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, at VA's Greater LA Healthcare System, medical personnel caring for patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 would receive only a single surgical mask per shift rather than the N95 respirators recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.