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The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) maintains programs and services that safeguard the health and well-being of millions of Americans.
Our Health Centers treat some 11.3 million, mostly low-income and uninsured patients, each year. Our Maternal and Child Health programs annually serve 27 million women, infants, children, and adolescents. Hundreds of thousands of Americans with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) enjoy healthier lives thanks to the work of our HIV/AIDS Bureau. Thousands of minority health professionals have launched their careers with HRSA loans and scholarships, while other Agency efforts encourage life-saving organ and tissue donations and bring needed health care services to rural America.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2002, President Bush and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson entrusted us with new initiatives to improve direct access to health care for all Americans.
We have made substantial progress in implementing the President’s Health Center Initiative, which will create new or expand existing Health Center sites in 1,200 communities and increase the number of patients served annually to more than 16 million by 2006. HRSA exceeded its target for FY 2002 by funding 171 new health center sites and by expanding services in 131 existing centers.
HRSA also has expanded and reformed the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), whose clinicians provide high quality care in some of the neediest and most isolated corners of the Nation. This year, the NHSC awarded $90 million in scholarships and loan repayments to 1,300 health care professionals who will work in areas that lack adequate medical care.
In order to protect Americans from possible bioterrorism attacks, HRSA implemented a new $135 million Hospital Preparedness Program to strengthen links between health care and public health systems. The program will improve the Nation’s ability to detect an attack and to provide appropriate prevention and treatment.
This list just scratches the surface of our new and ongoing responsibilities. For a fuller understanding of the scope of HRSA’s work, I encourage you to read the following report, which highlights our achievements during FY 2002.
Administrator
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