Washington, D.C. — Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva is pleased to announce today that El Rio Community Health Center will receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The funds are part of the $2 billion allotted to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the ARRA to expand health care services to low-income and uninsured individuals through its health center program. Awards totaling $27.8 million will go to health center-controlled networks and large multi-site health centers to implement Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other health information technology (HIT) innovations.

El Rio Community Health Center will receive $621,874 to help implement Electronic Health Records for the clinic.

“I am so pleased that El Rio will receive these much needed funds,” said Grijalva. “This will help expand and upgrade their records system and it will make a huge difference in providing health care to the growing number of people in need in our community.”

Eighteen grants totaling more than $22.6 million will support EHR implementation. Grants totaling more than $2.6 million will help four grantees implement a variety of HIT innovations, including health information exchanges among different providers and bringing HIT to dental delivery sites. Another five grants totaling over $2.5 million will help health centers devise plans to use existing EHRs to improve patient health outcomes.

HRSA received $2 billion through ARRA to expand health care services to low-income and uninsured individuals through its health center program. To date, more than $1.3 billion of these funds have been awarded to community-based organizations across the country. HRSA-supported health centers treated 17 million patients in 2008, 40 percent of whom have no health insurance.

For more information, please go to, http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/.