Female veterans press VA hospitals to meet their needs

Trista Matascastillo remembers arriving at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center in 2010 for an exam and thinking the hospital didn't quite get the needs of female veterans. The exam room, for instance, opened onto the patient waiting area, she said. She had to ask that the door be closed. It was a tiny detail, one Matascastillo said staff fixed quickly. But the 16-year veteran keeps the story close by now that she is part of an effort to help the center improve care for women. More than 200,000 women nationwide — 30,000 in Minnesota — have served since 2001; 20 percent of the nation's military recruits are female, according to a recent report from the group Disabled American Veterans.