The World Confronts Maternal Mortality

Dr. Sigounas speaking at the HRSA Maternal Mortality Summit

Maternal mortality rates in the United States have tripled over the past 25 years. They're highest among minority moms – in the U.S., as in most developed countries. And women today are more likely to die following childbirth than their mothers were, often of complications from treatable conditions like preeclampsia that go undetected, misdiagnosed or ignored.

"For every maternal death, there are nearly 100 pregnant women who have suffered from a traumatic event or near-death experience in childbirth ... Maternal mortality and morbidity are serious concerns in the United States and around the world ... We can do more to prevent this loss of life and illness." – George Sigounas, MS, Ph.D., HRSA Administrator

Watch highlights from the summit.

HRSA Aids Sierra Leone on Maternal Mortality

HAB's George Tidwell and Myat Htoo Razak with U.S. Ambassador Maria Brewer

Overwhelmed during the Ebola Crisis of 2014-2015, Princess Christian Hospital was already overburdened before the epidemic.

In a country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, nurses were in short supply when the government reached out to U.S. officials with the ambitious goal of increasing its nursing workforce from 300 to more than 1,100 by 2020.

HRSA answered the call.

HHS Makes $350 Million Available to Fight the Opioid Crisis in Community Health Centers Nationwide

HHS 5-point strategy to combat the opioids crisis

June 15 – HHS announced the availability of $350 million in new funding to expand access to substance use disorder and mental health services at community health centers across the nation. These funds will support health centers in implementing and advancing evidence-based strategies, including expanded medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services, and are expected to be awarded in September of this year by HHS's Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

“Local communities have played a vital role in combating our country’s opioid crisis,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “The contributions of HRSA-funded health centers in particular have been invaluable. These new grants, provided by the government funding bill President Trump signed earlier this year, will allow centers to expand their important work providing high quality substance abuse and mental health services.”

Read the news release.

APPLY NOW: The Rural Communities Opioid Response Funding Opportunity

June 15 – HRSA's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) has released the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the new Rural Communities Opioid Response (Planning) (RCORP) initiative for FY 2018. HRSA plans to award approximately 75 grants to rural communities as part of this funding opportunity.

All eligible high risk rural communities are encouraged to apply.

Successful awardees will receive up to $200,000 for one year to develop plans to implement opioid use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery interventions designed to reduce opioid overdoses among rural populations.

Review the funding opportunity.

ANE-Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) Program

image of a doctor comforting a young female patient

HRSA’s Advanced Nursing Education-Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (ANE-SANE) Program is accepting applications.

The goal of this program is to train more providers to conduct sexual assault forensic examinations, which provide better physical and mental health care for survivors, better evidence collection, and higher prosecution rates.

Learn if your organization is eligible to apply.

Virtual Job Fair

HRSA’s Virtual Job Fairs connect health care sites with primary care trainees and clinicians seeking employment.

The next Virtual Job Fair will take place on Wednesday, June 27 from 6:45-10:15 p.m. ET.

Interested primary care clinicians may register until the day of the event.

Learn more at the Virtual Job Fair Website.

Health Center Program 2018 Uniform Data System (UDS) Manual Now Available

The 2018 UDS Manual (PDF - 2 MB) describes the annual UDS reporting requirements for all health centers that receive federal award funds (awardees) as well as for look-alikes under the Health Center Program. The manual, a comprehensive guide for awardees, provides an understanding of the framework of reporting requirements, including data submissions on patients, operations, and clinical performance, and is used to reference the 2018 UDS tables when preparing the UDS report.

The manual provides:

An introduction and overview of the UDS
Instructions for completing each of the tables
Information on how to submit the data through HRSA’s Electronic Handbooks (EHBs)

The 2018 UDS Manual is available on the UDS Resources page.

2018 Federal Health IT Innovation Awards

health it innovation award winners from hrsa

The 2018 Federal Health IT Innovation Awards and Networking Event took place on June 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Dozens of applications were reviewed by a panel of judges from government, industry leaders, and the startup community, and 26 of the top applications from CMS, HRSA, FDA, USDA, HHS, VA, and DHA were selected as the 2018 Federal Health IT Innovation Award Winners.

The event recognized and honored Federal health IT innovation, technology, and consulting sector programs selected and nominated by their peers for driving innovation and results across the Federal government.

HRSA’s Telehealth Resource Center (TRC) Program was one of the award winners. HRSA staff that accepted the award from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy were: Dr. William England, Director for the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) and Natassja Manzanero, Program Coordinator for the Telehealth Resource Center Program in OAT.

HRSA/NIH Study Confirms IV Fluids Do Not Harm Brain of Children with Diabetes-Related Condition

Research implemented through HRSA’s Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network found that giving fluids intravenously to children with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) does not harm the brain. DKA is a complication of diabetes that may cause brain injuries. For decades, health care providers have hesitated to give these children intravenous fluids because they thought too much fluid would exacerbate any DKA-related brain injuries. The study implies that providers should not withhold necessary fluid treatment to address dehydration or other medical conditions.

HRSA’s Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) addresses evidence gaps in pediatric emergency medicine by connecting multiple hospitals together, allowing researchers to more effectively and efficiently study optimal clinical care for trauma or medical emergencies. PECARN researchers leveraged the improved analytical power obtained by pooling data across institutions to secure additional funding from the National Institutes of Health to implement this randomized controlled trial of more than 1,300 children with DKA at 13 emergency department sites across the U.S.

Read the abstract in New England Journal of Medicine.