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STRATEGIC
PLAN MISSION AND GOALS
The Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA), an Agency of the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (DHHS), is the principal Federal
Agency charged with increasing access to basic health
care for those who are medically underserved. Health
care in the United States is among the finest in the
world, but it is not available to everyone. At a
time when the Nation enjoys unprecedented prosperity,
millions of families still face barriers to quality
health care because of their income, lack of insurance,
geographic isolation, or language and cultural barriers.
In the report, America’s Health Care Safety Net,
the Institute of Medicine concluded that the Nation’s
health care safety net, while intact for the short
term, is endangered over the longer term by shrinking
resources (both funding and available practitioners)
and expanding responsibility. Assuring a safety net
for individuals and families who live outside the
economic and medical mainstream is a key HRSA role.
To articulate its purpose and roles and guide future
directions, HRSA has developed a Strategic Plan for
2005-2010. The plan identifies the following vision
and mission.
Vision
HRSA envisions optimal health for all, supported
by a health care system that assures access to comprehensive,
culturally competent, quality care.
Mission
HRSA provides national leadership, program resources
and services needed to improve access to culturally
competent, quality health care.
As the Nation’s Access Agency, HRSA focuses on uninsured,
underserved and special needs populations. HRSA programs
and services target, for example:
- The 47 million Americans who lack health insurance
- many of whom are racial and ethnic minorities,
- Over 50 million underserved Americans who live
in rural and poor urban neighborhoods where health
care services are scarce,
- African American infants who still are 2.4 times
as likely as white infants to die before their first
birthday,
- The more than 1 million people living with HIV/AIDS,
both in and out of care, and
- Over 94,000 Americans who are waiting for an
organ transplant.
Examples of how HRSA accomplishes its mission include:
Assisting States and communities to identify and
address unmet service needs and workforce gaps in
the health care system,
- Working with States and communities in developing
integrated service systems to help assure access
to essential health care,
- Assuring that these systems take into account
cultural and linguistic factors, geographic location,
and economic circumstances,
- Promoting continuous quality improvement in health
services delivery and health professions education,
- Promoting the recruitment, training, and retention
of a culturally and linguistically competent and
diverse health care workforce,
- Overseeing the Nation’s organ transplantation
and bone marrow donor systems.
HRSA’s Strategic Plan defines seven long-range goals
that support HRSA’s mission. Each goal includes several
objectives that identify the focus of activities that
HRSA will carry out to achieve its mission. These
HRSA goals and objectives are shown in the following
table.
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HRSA GOALS |
HRSA OBJECTIVES |
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I. Improve Access to Health
Care |
A. Expand the capacity of
the health care safety net
B. Promote the development of a culturally
diverse and representative health care workforce
C. Improve the distribution of health professionals
in underserved areas, including in rural
and border areas
D. Promote access to health insurance and
maximize use of available reimbursements for
health care services |
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II. Improve Health Outcomes |
A. Expand the availability
of health care, particularly to underserved,
vulnerable, and special needs populations
B. Increase the utilization of preventive
health care and chronic disease management services,
particularly among underserved, vulnerable and
special needs populations |
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III. Improve the Quality of
Health Care |
A. Promote effectiveness
of health care services
B. Promote patient safety and improve patient
protections
C. Promote access to, and appropriate use
of, health care information
D. Promote the implementation of evidence-based
methodologies and best practices |
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IV. Eliminate Health Disparities
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A. Focus resources and services
on diseases and conditions with the greatest
health disparities
B. Promote outreach efforts to reach populations
most affected by health disparities
C. Promote the integration of cultural competency
into HRSA programs, policies and practices |
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V. Improve the Public Health
and Health Care Systems |
A. Utilize trend data to assist
in targeting program resources toward goals
B. Increase collaborative efforts to improve
the capacity and efficiency of the public health
and health care systems
C. Accelerate the development and use of
an electronic health information infrastructure |
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VI. Enhance the Ability of the
Health Care System to Respond to Public Health
Emergencies |
A. Enhance the ability of hospitals,
health centers, emergency medical systems, poison
control centers, and health professionals to
respond to bioterrorism and other public health
threats in a timely and effective manner
B. Evaluate capacity of the health care system
to plan for and respond to potentially urgent/emergent
health care issues |
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VII. Achieve Excellence in
Management |
A. Foster and lead a high-quality
well-trained workforce
B. Strategically manage information technology
to support programs
C. Preserve the financial integrity of HRSA’s
programs and activities
D. Administer a fair, consistent, transparent
and efficient grants program
E. Identify and capitalize on opportunities
for cross-program collaboration |
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