Summary: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made significant progress since 1982--when GAO last reported on this issue (see GAO/HRD-92-98)--in ensuring that female veterans receive the same access to health care as male veterans. The increased emphasis on identifying and correcting problems concerning care for women veterans followed both the creation of an Advisory Committee on Women Veterans at the Central Office and the appointment of a women veterans coordinator at each medical center. Yet problems remain. Physical examinations for women veterans, including cancer screenings, remain sporadic. VA medical centers are inadequately monitoring their in-house mammography programs to ensure compliance with quality standards. Center procedures are inadequate to ensure that patient privacy limitations affecting women patients are identified and corrected during facility renovations. VA medical centers could improve compliance with physical examination requirements if the VA Central Office ensured that information about best practices is disseminated and, where appropriate, implemented throughout the system.
