San Francisco VA Medical Center

The San Francisco VA Medical Center occupies a campus at Fort Miley on the city's northwest edge, overlooking the Pacific near Land's End, and operates within the Veterans Health Administration. A longstanding affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco makes the facility a major teaching site for residents, fellows, and health professions students, and supports one of the largest research programs in the VA system, with substantial funded work in areas including HIV, neurology, and epidemiology. Community-based outpatient clinics extend access across the Bay Area and into northern California counties.

Services include inpatient medical and surgical care, intensive care, surgery, primary care, and a wide range of outpatient specialty clinics, alongside mental and behavioral health programs covering outpatient treatment, PTSD care, substance use treatment, and extensive outreach to veterans experiencing homelessness, a significant population in the city. Extended care and rehabilitation support aging veterans. Nurses practice across critical care, medical-surgical, perioperative, outpatient, and mental health settings, with acuity reflecting the hospital's academic character and referral role. Nursing positions fall under federal employment, so pay scales include locality adjustments and follow VA structures rather than the terms at UCSF or Sutter.