by
Astrid Fiano, DOTmed News Writer | June 09, 2010
This report originally appeared in the May 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report on the status of health services for female veterans, in part by visiting a sample of Veterans Affairs medical centers (VAMC) and also community-based outpatient clinics (CBOC). The GAO says that since a 2009 GAO report, the VA has required facilities to report more on compliance with current policies, but the VA doesn't currently have the ability to validate a facility's report.
In its current report, the GAO found that 17 of the 19 facilities visited offered gender-specific services, such as cervical cancer screening and 15 offered access to a female provider for that care. But the availability of gender-specific services varied by the service and the facility. Some VAMCs offered a substantial range of care, while some smaller CBOCs had to refer women to other facilities for services. While nine VAMC have residential mental health programs, the information concerning those programs is not readily available on the Department of Veterans' Affairs web site. Facilities have continued challenges in providing health care for women, including space constraints that affect provision of care and privacy, hiring providers with specific experience and training in women's heath, and expanding the authority of the Women Veterans Program Managers (WVPM) - advocates for women patients. The VA has begun to address some of these challenges, including creating a team to coordinate training and knowledge-sharing on military sexual trauma-related services and educating facility leadership about WVPMs' authority to initiate change at facilities. However, the GAO says, these challenges have not been fully addressed, such as completely integrating its privacy policies for women into design and construction standards, updating its WVPM manual or providing guidance on military sexual trauma (MST) training for mental health providers
Among the recommendations the GAO has in its report are for expedited action to be taken to ensure that VA's design and construction policies explicitly address the needs of women veterans in VA medical facilities; that complete information be given on VA's external Web sites regarding specialized residential mental health treatment programs VA offers for women veterans who have experienced MST or other traumas; and that a process be established to independently validate a facility's self-reported information on compliance.
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