Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs
Comprehensive and Compassionate Care for a Rural Community in Great Need
The Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs (RUHSA) is CMC’s most comprehensive rural health program, instituted to improve the health, economic status, and education levels of the more than 130,000 rural residents living in the K.V. Kuppam Block of Tamil Nadu, an area located just 20 kilometers from CMC’s main hospital.
Upon its founding in 1977, RUHSA’s Outpatient Department (OPD) was designed to accommodate up to 150 patient visits per day. After 38 years of service, however, the needs of the community had significantly outgrown RUHSA’s clinical, educational, and administrative space. By 2013, the number of patient visits had increased dramatically. Every day, more than 400 people were arriving at the OPD for medical and other types of assistance.
RUHSA began an essential capital expansion effort to enlarge its Outpatient Department in 2015, resulting in the creation of new space for its ever-expanding programs. In 2016, CMC opened a new RUHSA Out-Patient Department (OPD) and Emergency Room (ER), which improved the ability of nurses and doctors, in collaboration with family care volunteers and aides, to provide primary medical care and localized support services for vulnerable groups such as women, children, and the elderly.
Fostering Training, Education, and Research
To this day, RUHSA’s OPD serves as a great location for aspiring healthcare professionals to learn about preventive and community health. Each year, RUHSA trains community medicine postgraduates, medical interns, and medical sociology students. Collaborations with international universities, as well as with Foundation Board members, have helped foster innovative research projects focused on important issues like point-of-care testing and cervical cancer prevention.
The RUHSA program counts on support from donors like you to continue to provide primary and secondary care, inpatient care, mobile health services, family support programs and vocational training to alleviate poverty and improve community health.
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