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ND nurse to oversee Ryan White HIV/AIDS program
By The Associated Press
02.23.2009 11:26am EST
02.23.2009 11:26am EST
(Washington) President Barack Obama has named a North Dakota nurse and expert on rural health to run the government’s community clinics program..
Known as HRSA, the agency oversees some 7,000 community clinics that serve low-income and uninsured people. It also runs the government’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, providing medical care and medications for 530,000 low-income patients. The recently passed economic stimulus bill gives HRSA $2.5 billion to spend for improvements to health care facilities and training medical professionals.
“Under her leadership we will be able to expand and improve the care provided at the community health centers, which serve millions of uninsured Americans, and address severe provider shortages across the country,” Obama said in a statement.
Community health centers are sometimes the only doctors’ offices in depressed inner city neighborhoods and rural communities. Their patients are usually low-income people, often uninsured. The centers provide basic medical care, keeping children with colds from ending up in the emergency room, and helping patients with chronic conditions to stay healthy.
Wakefield, 54, said in an interview her first priority will be to allocate the economic recovery funds provided to the agency. The money will be used to refurbish health centers and hire doctors and nurses.
“Right now, in these times of economic downturn, these programs are pivotal,” she said. “They reach communities across the country and touch lives in ways that can make a huge difference.”
Wakefield is familiar with Washington, having served as a top staff aide for two North Dakota senators, including Democrat Kent Conrad, the budget committee chairman.
Conrad said she has “the background and expertise to make a real difference in our nation’s health care policy.”
Wakefield’s life has been touched by family tragedy. In 2005, a brother and two of his young children were killed in a car wreck. Her sister-in-law was severely injured in the crash, and a surviving nephew had to have his right arm amputated.
“Colors that painted my world drained away,” Wakefield wrote at the time. “My enthusiasm for health policy, the focus of most of my work, was completely gone.”
In response to the loss, six U.S. senators - four Democrats and two Republicans - introduced legislation to improve emergency medical care for children and named it ‘The Wakefield Act.’ The bill did not pass, but Wakefield said it helped call attention to the needs of children.
HRSA is part of the Health and Human Services Department, which has been leaderless since Tom Daschle, Obama’s first choice for secretary, was forced to withdraw his nomination because of tax problems. Other major posts in the department, including the heads of Medicare and the Food and Drug Administration, remain unfilled.
Obama is expected to move quickly to nominate an HHS secretary. A senior administration official has told The Associated Press that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is near the top of the list of candidates.
You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.
-- Winston Churchill
