§7310 Office of Women’s Health

Summary

Create and run an Office of Women’s Health inside the Veterans Health Administration at the VA Central Office. The office is led by a Chief Officer who reports to the Under Secretary for Health. The Under Secretary must give the office staff and support it needs and may reorganize other VA offices to avoid doing the same work twice. The office watches how VA cares for women veterans, makes and enforces standards of care, finds and helps fix problems at VA facilities and in community care, oversees how resources and information for women’s health are shared, promotes clinical, research, and training efforts, and gives yearly budget recommendations so funding for women’s care matches or exceeds the share of women enrolled. The office also can suggest changes to the VA’s resource-allocation system and perform other duties the Under Secretary requires. If the Under Secretary decides not to follow a resource recommendation from the Chief Officer, the Secretary must tell the appropriate congressional committees within 30 days and explain why and what alternative will be used. Minimum care rules include at least one designated women’s health primary care provider at each VA medical center (who also helps train other staff) and at least one at each community-based outpatient clinic. The Chief Officer must make sure each VA facility holds a public forum for women veterans at least twice a year outside business hours and runs quarterly women’s focus groups that discuss harassment. Definitions: appropriate congressional committees — the congressional committees named elsewhere in law; facility of the Department — VA hospitals and clinics; Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation system — the VA’s statutory resource-allocation system.