What is the Delta Resource Project?
With funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP), the Delta Resource Project has been developed to provide assistance on funding and information resources to grantees that are part of ORHP's Delta States Rural Development Network program. Specifically, the project has been established to assist these grantees with locating and competing for funding opportunities in order to address health care needs in their communities. The Delta region is defined by ORHP as those 224 rural counties located in the Mississippi Delta region in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.
Who Uses the Delta Resource Project?
The primary audience for the DRP is the grantees that are part of ORHP's Delta States Rural Development Network program in the eight states of the Mississippi Delta region in the southern United States. It is anticipated that all people, organizations, and communities with an interest in health care will also find the web site to be a valuable tool.
Delta Services
Web-Based Services
In order to provide rural Delta communities with the information they need, the project has created a web site that includes:
Resource Manual
A print version of information found on the web site, as well as additional information resources, is availabe for all of the grantees in the Delta States Rural Development Network program.
The Rural Assistance Center
The Delta Resource Project is a project of the Rural Assistance Center, funded by the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Funding for the project comes from ORHP's Delta States Initiative, whose mission is to address the severe health disparities pervasive in the Mississippi Delta region.
A product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Rural Initiative, the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) was established in December 2002 as a national rural health and human services "information portal." RAC helps rural communities and other rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding, and research that can enable them to provide quality health and human services to rural residents. Services available through the Rural Assistance Center include a dynamic web-site, electronic updates on rural health and human services, and customized assistance provided by RAC's Information Specialists.
RAC is a collaboration of the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health (UND-CRH), the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) and is based at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
For more information about the Rural Assistance Center, call (800) 270-1898 or visit RAC online at
http://www.raconline.org.
The Office of Rural Health Policy
The Rural Assistance Center is supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Office of Rural Health Policy. The Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) promotes better health care service in rural America. Established in August 1987 by the Administration, ORHP was subsequently authorized by Congress in December 1987 and located in the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Congress charged ORHP with informing and advising HHS on matters affecting rural hospitals and health care, coordinating activities within the Department that relate to rural health care, and maintaining a national information clearinghouse.
ORHP works with government at the federal, state and local levels, and with the private sector--associations, foundations, providers and community leaders--to seek solutions to rural health care problems.
For more information about the Office of Rural Health Policy, call (301) 443-0835 or visit ORHP on the web at http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov.
Delta Rural Hospital Performance Improvement Project
Along with the Delta States Rural Development Network (DSRDN) Program, the Delta Rural Hospital Performance Improvement (DRHPI) Project, comprises ORHP's Delta States Initiative. The DRHPI project focuses on strengthening rural hospitals as the cornerstone to preserving health care access. The project brings needed technical expertise, information, and business tools to small, rural hospitals. The hospitals targeted for this project are located in rural counties and parishes of the eight state Mississippi Delta region, and include 173 hospitals with 200 or fewer staffed beds. The DRHPI project partners include state offices of rural health and state hospital associations.
For more information about the DRHPI, contact Bethany F. Adams at 904-553-0081 or badams@mtnstatesgroup.org. Or, visit the project's website: http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/delta/.
