Chicago VA Renamed to Honor Former Secretary
The VA affiliate in the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University has undergone a name change. On May 25, 2004, the VA Chicago Health Care System was renamed the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. The late Jesse Brown served as executive director of American Disabled Veterans before being appointed in 1993 as secretary of veterans affairs by President Bill Clinton. Brown died in 2002 at age 58.
The Jesse Brown VA Medical Center consists of a 209-bed inpatient facility and an outpatient clinic at the former West Side VA Medical Center plus four freestanding outpatient clinics. These clinics are the Lakeside Outpatient Clinic (located on Northwestern University’s Chicago campus) and ones located in Chicago Heights and Beverly, Illinois, and Crown Point, Indiana. A shuttle service takes Northwestern medical students, residents, and faculty members between the NU Chicago campus and the West Side facility.
In addition to the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, the McGaw Medical Center also includes Children’s Memorial Medical Center, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Many of the attending physicians at these teaching hospitals have academic appointments at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.