
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 24, 1993                   TAG: 9306240101
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

STUDY: VA HOSPITALS STILL SLIGHT WOMEN

Eleven years after the General Accounting Office first warned that veterans' hospitals were neglecting the health needs of female veterans, a new study has concluded the Department of Veterans Affairs still provides inconsistent - and often poor - care to women.

"That is an agency with an attitude," complained Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., citing a VA inspector general's survey that said senior health officials in the department have ignored the needs of the growing number of women in the military.

Only one of eight VA medical centers surveyed by the inspector general's staff, in Minneapolis, offered a full range of health services to women.

Investigators said 75 of 166 VA hospitals they surveyed by mail had no women's clinics at all - a finding that Schroeder called "a real shame on the country."

Critics told the veterans' oversight subcommittee, however, that they believe the VA is likely to change. Deputy VA Secretary Hershel Gober was praised by Chairman Lane Evans, D-Ill., for a statement acknowledging that the department "has neglected women badly."

But witnesses told the subcommittee that the VA has a long way to go. They said that many VA hospitals still are inadequately staffed and lack the basic supplies for routine health examinations.

Some reported poor treatment. One witness spoke of an unnamed impoverished 64-year-old California woman who said she would rather spend $300 a month on private health insurance than be treated by the VA; another spoke of a woman whose mammogram, three years after it was taken, was found to have been misread.

Terri Lee Tamase, a VA physican in Los Angeles, told Evans she would rather be treated at the University of California Medical Center than at her own hospital. "The problem is with the culture," she said, citing the VA's history of caring for men.

"We certainly have improvements to make," said Wayne Hawkins, the VA's deputy undersecretary for health. Hawkins said he was at a loss to explain why some VA hospitals lacked basic, inexpensive medical supplies to treat women.

The inspector general's office and witnesses reported seeing examination rooms for women that opened onto waiting rooms. Some said VA hospitals had no gowns for women and others told of women being assigned to wards with men that afforded no privacy.

On Tuesday the VA announced that it was beginning a series of health care initiatives for women. The agency will establish four comprehensive health centers for women and four stress-disorder treatment teams. In addition, 69 full- and part-time counselors will be hired to treat victims of sexual assault and harassment, the department said.

Women account for about 4 percent of the nation's 26 million veterans, but they make up 11 percent of the active duty force, a percentage that presages more female patients in VA hospitals.

"We're not saying each and every VA hospital needs a huge slug of money," said VA Inspector General Stephen A. Trodden. "But, clearly we need to do much, much better."

by CNB