Office of Primary Care and Rural Health

Welcome to the Office of Primary Care home page.

This web site is divided into seven major sections:

• Consumers/Families
• Current News
• Health Professionals/Students
• HRSA Partnerships (BPHC, BHPr & NHSC)
• Office of Primary Care (OPC) Programs
• Policy/Information/Data/Reports
• Web Links

As Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD, Former Director of the federal Bureau of  Primary Health Care once stated, "Health care doesn't change just one person's life. It changes the lives of entire communities." Consistent with this premise, the Office of Primary Care and Rural Health maintains a broad complement of community and governmental  partners who work collaboratively to improve the access, quality and availability of primary care throughout Rhode Island.

As cited by the Institute of Medicine (1996) in Primary Care: America's Health in a New Era, primary care is the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. Primary care provides critical linkages between the individual, the community and public health and emphasizes community responsive, culturally sensitive services.

For more information, please Email us.