VA Central Iowa Health Care System is the result of the 1997 merger of the Des Moines and Knoxville, Iowa, VA Medical Centers. This integrated health care system brings two previously separate organizational structures, located 40 miles apart, into one cohesive entity. The system provides a full continuum of health care services to veterans. The facility provides acute and specialized medical and surgical services, as well as intensive outpatient treatment programs and post-traumatic stress care. It also offers a full range of mental health, rehabilitation, and long-term care to veterans from a large geographical area of the Midwest. Special programs for intervention in alcohol and drug treatment, Alzheimer's and homelessness are provided in the overall continuum of care.