Public-Law 102-585, 1992, Veterans Health Care Act, was landmark legislation for women veterans healthcare with the following provisions:

• Authorized VA to provide gender-specific services and general reproductive health care and sexual trauma counseling to eligible women veterans.
• Eight Women’s Comprehensive Centers were authorized and funded: Boston, Southeast PA, Durham, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Tampa.

Although they are no longer exclusively funded, these centers remain prototypes of healthcare delivery to women and provide a legacy of best practices to the field.

Clinical Programs of Excellence

Currently, the Women Veterans Healthcare Strategic Healthcare Group has established a Center of Excellence program award.  The Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Women Veterans has long supported the pursuit of centers of excellence of women’s health and has included it as an official recommendation in the 2006 report.

The designation of a Center of Excellence in Women’s Health recognizes those clinical programs that provide exceptional quality while meeting the highest standards of clinical care, patient satisfaction, education and training, and research. Achieving this designation is valuable in employee recruitment, marketing endeavors and grants applications.

Consideration for the award designation is based on the following criteria:

     Clinical Care Outcomes

     Leadership & Staff Development

     Education and Research

     Customer Service and Community Collaboration

     Support of the WVHP Business Plan

Solicitation is ongoing with no limit to designees.  Award designation is for a period of three years. These Centers of Excellence will serve as models for women veterans’ health care, and as information and referral sources to help others in the VA system achieve excellence in clinical outcomes, clinical care and staff training.