Women vets get less on-site specialty care at VA facilities.

2003 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medical facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) routinely offer basic health care services to women veterans, but often send these women off-site to receive more specialized services like breast cancer surgery and prenatal care, according to a new study.

The arrangement makes it possible for the VA system to offer comprehensive women's health care, especially where the volume of women seeking care is not high enough to ensure quality in a particular service on-site, said Donna L. Washington, MD, MPH, of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

"Despite widespread overall service availability, however, on-site 'one-stop shopping' is routinely available only for basic primary care services," Washington and her colleagues said.

The researchers surveyed 166 VA facilities nationwide, all of which served 400 or more women veterans in 2000, to determine how basic and specialized women's health services were offered. The 166 facilities serve more than 80% of the women who use the VA health care system.

Ninety-three percent of the facilities offered at least seven of nine basic health care services, like Pap smears and birth control prescriptions, within the facility. Sexual trauma counseling, a specialized service, was also offered on-site at 96% of the facilities.

Other specialized services, however, were often provided off-site through a contract with outside health care facilities. Such specialized services ...