Division of Primary Care and Rural Health
State Primary Care Office
The goal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Primary Care Office Cooperative Agreement Program is to assure the availability of quality health care to low income, uninsured, isolated, vulnerable and special needs populations and to meet these populations’ unique health care needs. Virginia's Primary Care Office (PCO) accomplishes this through the following:
- Fostering collaboration across and within various levels of government, communities, and non-profit organizations;
- Identifying communities with the greatest unmet health care needs, disparities, and health workforce shortages; identifying the key barriers to access to health care for these communities; and working toward solutions;
- Supporting the Virgina Community Healthcare Association [Virginia's Primary Care Association (PCA)] by providing information to assist in their development of a plan to manage the growth of health centers in Virginia; and
- Supporting and enhancing the primary care workforce in the State through shortage designations, recruitment and retention activities, and administration of scholarships and loan repayment programs.
The goal of the the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) grant program is to assist States in strengthening rural health care delivery systems by creating a focal point for rural health within each State. The mission of each State Office of Rural Health is to help its individual rural communities build health care delivery systems. The Virginia State Office of Rural Health (SORH) accomplishes this mission by:
- Fostering collaboration and leveraging resources across and within various levels of government, communities, and non-profit organizations;
- Collecting and disseminating information to stakeholders;
- Providing technical assistance;
- Helping to coordinate rural health interests; and
- Supporting efforts to improve recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural areas.
