A new $6.3 million initiative announced today by the HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration will help improve the health of people who live in the Mississippi Delta region.

The initiative includes two activities: $5.28 million in grants to create networks that improve access to primary care services and a $1 million contract to help small rural hospitals improve their operations and financial performance.The Delta region -- which covers 205 rural counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee -- is characterized by high poverty and unemployment, racial disparities in health, and too few resources to meet current health needs.

"This initiative will bring more primary health care services to more people in the Delta, which has some of the nation's highest rates of preventable disease, disability and death," HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said."And it will help stabilize small rural hospitals that provide critical safety-net services and are often economic engines in their communities."

The activities announced today are some of the first steps taken as part of Secretary Thompson's department-wide effort to improve health care and social services in rural areas across the country.In July, the Secretary created a new HHS Rural Task Force to find ways to strengthen HHS programs that serve people in rural communities.

The $5.28 million in eight rural development grants are intended to strengthen access to primary health care in the region.Funds will support the development of statewide networks, which will in turn help rural Delta counties form local outreach networks.The local networks will do such things as determine critical health needs, improve coordination among primary care providers, strengthen emergency medical services or develop community approaches to specific health problems.Funds were awarded through competitive grants; the amount of each award is based on the number of rural Delta counties in each state.

The $1 million contract, a competitive award, will create a partnership between the Mountain States Group of Boise, Idaho, and the National Rural Health Resource Center of Duluth, Minn.The partnership will develop tools that can assess and improve the performance of small rural hospitals in the region.Trained consultants will be sent to work on-site with local hospitals to help them apply the new tools.The hospitals also will benefit from technical assistance to help them develop and implement plans that will improve their financial management and clinical services.

In many rural communities, small hospitals deliver the full range of health care - including inpatient, outpatient and emergency medical services, skilled nursing care and home health services - to all residents, including insured and uninsured consumers as well as Medicare beneficiaries.As a result, many of America's 2,100 small rural hospitals face financial challenges that could harm the quality of their clinical care.In the Delta region, half of all small rural hospitals are losing money.About 80 small rural hospitals in the eight-state region will be eligible for assistance.

Grants went to: