Health Resources and Services Administration
Encyclopedia
The Health Resources and Services Administration (or HRSA), is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services located in Rockville, Maryland
. It is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.
Comprising six bureaus and 13 offices, HRSA provides leadership and financial support to health care providers in every state and U.S. territory. HRSA grantees provide health care to uninsured people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and pregnant women, mothers and children. They train health professionals and improve systems of care in rural communities.
HRSA oversees organ, bone marrow and cord blood donation. It supports programs that prepare against bioterrorism, compensate individuals harmed by vaccination, and maintains databases that protect against health care malpractice and health care waste, fraud and abuse.
Since 1943 the agencies that were HRSA precursors have worked to improve the health of needy people. HRSA was created in 1982, when the Health Resources Administration and the Health Services Administration were merged.
On February 20, 2009, President Obama
announced the appointment of one of the nation’s top rural health care professionals as Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Dr. Mary Wakefield
, Director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota
, oversees this critical agency, which helps to deliver health care to those who are uninsured and underserved by our current health care system.
HIV/AIDS Program
provides primary care, support services and antiretroviral drug
s for about 530,000 low-income people. The program also funds training, technical assistance and demonstration projects designed to slow the spread of the epidemic in high-risk populations. These services avert more costly in-patient care and improve the quality of life for those living with the virus.
Among the most successful public health initiatives in U.S. history, HRSA's maternal and child health programs annually serve more than 34 million people. Maternal and Child Health Bureau
program uses information technology to link isolated rural practitioners to medical institutions over great distances. Many of these activities are designed and operated out of the Agency's Office of Rural Health Policy
.
scholarships and student loan repayment programs, more than 28,000 clinicians have served in some of the most economically deprived and geographically isolated communities in America over the past 35 years.
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
. It is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.
Comprising six bureaus and 13 offices, HRSA provides leadership and financial support to health care providers in every state and U.S. territory. HRSA grantees provide health care to uninsured people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and pregnant women, mothers and children. They train health professionals and improve systems of care in rural communities.
HRSA oversees organ, bone marrow and cord blood donation. It supports programs that prepare against bioterrorism, compensate individuals harmed by vaccination, and maintains databases that protect against health care malpractice and health care waste, fraud and abuse.
Since 1943 the agencies that were HRSA precursors have worked to improve the health of needy people. HRSA was created in 1982, when the Health Resources Administration and the Health Services Administration were merged.
On February 20, 2009, President Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
announced the appointment of one of the nation’s top rural health care professionals as Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Dr. Mary Wakefield
Mary Wakefield
Mary Wakefield, was named administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration by President Barack Obama on February 20, 2009.- Professional background :Dr...
, Director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota
University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...
, oversees this critical agency, which helps to deliver health care to those who are uninsured and underserved by our current health care system.
Goals
The agency lists seven goals:- Improve Access to Health Care.
- Improve Health Outcomes.
- Improve the Quality of Health Care.
- Eliminate Health Disparities.
- Improve the Public Health and Health Care Systems.
- Enhance the Ability of the Health Care System to Respond to Public Health Emergencies.
- Achieve Excellence in Management Practices
Key facts
- HRSA programs reach into every corner of America. The agency's $7 billion budget (FY 2008) provides direct health care to 23 million people.
- HRSA’s health center program supports medical, oral and behavioral healthBehavioral healthIn psychology behavioral health, as a general concept, refers to the reciprocal relationship between human behavior, individually or socially, and the well-being of the body, mind, and spirit, whether the latter are considered individually or as an integrated whole...
services to uninsured and underinsured individuals through a nationwide network of community-based clinics and mobile medical vans. By bringing comprehensive primary and preventive health care services to inner-city and rural communities that otherwise would be without them, health centers improve the health of their communities and relieve pressure on overburdened hospital emergency rooms. The agency also recruits doctors, nurses, dentists and others to work in areas with too few health care professionals.
- HRSA funds life-sustaining medicationMedicationA pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
and primary care to about half of the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States. The agency also furnishes funds and expertise that save and improve the lives of millions of mothers and children.
- HRSA oversees all organ, tissue and blood cell donations and is the federal agency primarily responsible for pediatric poison control. HRSA also maintains databases that track cases of health care malpracticeMalpracticeIn law, malpractice is a type of negligence in, which the professional under a duty to act, fails to follow generally accepted professional standards, and that breach of duty is the proximate cause of injury to a plaintiff who suffers harm...
and compensates individuals thought to be harmed by vaccinationVaccinationVaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
s.
- The agency monitors trends in the health care workforce and forecasts future demand. Scholarships and academic loan programs encourage greater minority participation in the health professions and seek to maintain an adequate supply of primary care professionals.
Primary Health Care
HRSA funds almost 1,110 health center grantees that operate more than 7,000 clinics and mobile medical vans. Health centers deliver primary and preventive care to over 16 million low-income patients in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and U.S. possessions in the Pacific.HIV/AIDS
The agency’s Ryan WhiteRyan White
Ryan Wayne White was an American teenager from Kokomo, Indiana, who became a national poster child for HIV/AIDS in the United States, after being expelled from middle school because of his infection. A hemophiliac, he became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment and, when diagnosed...
HIV/AIDS Program
HIV/AIDS Bureau
The HIV/AIDS Bureau is a part of the Health Resources and Services Administration , a part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services...
provides primary care, support services and antiretroviral drug
Antiretroviral drug
Antiretroviral drugs are medications for the treatment of infection by retroviruses, primarily HIV. When several such drugs, typically three or four, are taken in combination, the approach is known as Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, or HAART...
s for about 530,000 low-income people. The program also funds training, technical assistance and demonstration projects designed to slow the spread of the epidemic in high-risk populations. These services avert more costly in-patient care and improve the quality of life for those living with the virus.
Maternal and Child Health Bureau
HRSA administers a broad range of programs for pregnant women, mothers, infants, children, adolescents and their families and children with special health care requirements. The largest of the programs, the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to States, supports local efforts to reduce infant mortality and childhood illness and control costs associated with poor pre- and neo-natal care. The Block Grant includes State Formula Block Grants, Special Projects of Regional and National Significance (SPRANS), and Community Integrated Service Systems (CISS) projects. Other vital missions include Universal Newborn Hearing Screening, Traumatic Brain Injury, Healthy Start, Sickle Cell Service Demonstrations, Family to Family Health Information Centers, Emergency Medical Services for Children, and autism.Among the most successful public health initiatives in U.S. history, HRSA's maternal and child health programs annually serve more than 34 million people. Maternal and Child Health Bureau
Rural Health
To make health care more accessible for the 60 million residents of rural America, HRSA funds programs that integrate and streamline existing rural health care institutions and aid in the recruitment and retention of physicians in rural hospitals and clinics. HRSA’s telehealthTelehealth
Telehealth is the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies. Telehealth could be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone or as sophisticated as doing robotic surgery between facilities at different ends of the...
program uses information technology to link isolated rural practitioners to medical institutions over great distances. Many of these activities are designed and operated out of the Agency's Office of Rural Health Policy
Office of Rural Health Policy
The Office of Rural Health Policy is a part of the Health Resources and Services Administration , of the United States Department of Health and Human Services .- Overview :...
.
Clinician Recruitment and Service
The agency strives to ensure a health care workforce that is diverse, well-trained and adequately distributed throughout the nation. In exchange for financial assistance through National Health Service CorpsNational Health Service Corps
The National Health Service Corps is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, division of Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service....
scholarships and student loan repayment programs, more than 28,000 clinicians have served in some of the most economically deprived and geographically isolated communities in America over the past 35 years.
Health Professions
Many regions of the country—and various health disciplines—face serious workforce shortages. HRSA safeguards the foundations of the U.S. health care system by targeting grants to academic institutions to support post-graduate faculty retention; administering scholarships to increase staff in critical specialties, such as nursing; and funding leadership development programs. These programs leverage the educations of about 10,000 clinicians annually.Healthcare Systems
HRSA oversees the nation’s organ and tissue donation and transplantation systems, and a drug discount program for certain safety-net health care providers. The agency also supports the nation’s poison control centers and vaccine injury compensation programs, which distribute awards to individuals and families thought to have been injured by certain vaccines.External links
- Official website
- http://www.hrsa.gov/womenshealth/maternal_wellness_spanish/pdfs/poster.pdf