Why it Matters

More than 31,000 reported incidents of harassment-related behaviors involving veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers occurred between fiscal years 2020 and 2025, according to a Government Accountability Office report published Sept. 30. Researchers have found that veterans who experience these behaviors may avoid needed care, and staff who experience them may rush care in response, meaning the consequences extend beyond the incidents themselves.

The Big Picture

Studies cited in the report found that just 2 to 7% of individuals formally notify someone about experiencing sexual harassment, with fear of retaliation among the reasons people stay silent. Despite a VA policy established in 2022 aimed at ending harassment-related behaviors, reported incidents have since generally increased, yet the agency has not launched any systemwide effort to measure how widespread these behaviors actually are.

The VA's 2022 policy assigned certain medical center staff responsibility for managing reported incidents of harassment-related behaviors involving veterans, and reported data on those incidents likely do not capture all incidents that occur. Most of the more than 31,000 reported incidents involved veterans, or other patients, who engaged in these behaviors against staff, rather than the reverse.

The GAO issued one recommendation: the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should take steps to periodically identify the prevalence of harassment-related behaviors, including harassment, sexual harassment, and sexual assault involving veterans at VA medical centers to better understand and address their systemwide occurrence. The recommendation suggests this could be accomplished by adding scenario-based questions to an existing survey or by developing a new representative survey.

The Bottom Line

The recommendation is currently open, and VA did not provide comments on the report. Until the VA acts, the agency will remain without a reliable picture of how often harassment occurs across its health care system, leaving prevention efforts without a data foundation to guide them.

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