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Timeline / Renewing Native Ways / 2009: Reservation clinics, hospitals overcrowded and in need of repair

2009: Reservation clinics, hospitals overcrowded and in need of repair

A budget shortfall has left more than 700 Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities scattered through 36 states, mostly in rural and isolated areas, in need of maintenance. The average IHS facility is more than 30 years old and severely overcrowded, in part because of the need to add more staff to serve growing American Indian populations. Whenever new facilities are built, they are typically three times larger than the ones they replace.

For most American Indians/Alaska Natives, the Indian Health Service is their primary source of health care.

Theme
Federal-Tribal Relations
Region
Arctic, California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest, Subarctic

Cartoon of an Indian Health Service waiting room by Marty G. Two Bulls Sr., a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe from Pine Ridge Reservation

Courtesy Marty Two Bulls Sr.