Restrictions to Access

Use of audiotapes will require that the SHC produce listening copies from the originals.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Cardinal Health Agency Records #04966, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in December 1998 (Acc. 98276).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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• Cardinal Health Agency (Lumberton, N.C.).
• Health planning--North Carolina.
• Health systems agencies--North Carolina.
• Public health--North Carolina.
• United States. National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974.

The Cardinal Health Agency of Lumberton, N.C., was one of the organizations created under the mandate of Public Law 93-641, the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974. The law organized health programs into a structure of federal, state, and regional planning and development agencies with the objectives of containing health care costs, encouraging the optimal distribution of health care resources, and promoting improvement in the health care system.

For purposes of administration of the law, Governor James Holshouser divided North Carolina into six health service areas. Holshouser appointed citizens to organize a health systems agency for each health service area. Beginning in July 1976, the Cardinal Health Agency represented Health Service Area V, which included 15 counties in the southeastern part of the state: Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, New Hanover, Pender, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, and Scotland. The Agency's board of directors was composed of health care consumers, with at least 40% required to be health care providers. The Agency was approved for full designation as the health systems agency by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare on 1 July 1978. Full designation gave it the authority to implement plans, eligibility to receive and administer Area Health Development Funds, responsibility for reviewing institutional health services, and authority for approving applications for federal grants and recommending approval of proposed uses of federal funds under Medicare and Medicaid.

As part of its mandate under the National Health Planning and Development Act of 1974, the Cardinal Health Agency collected and analyzed local health resource data in order to produce long-range health systems plans and annual implementation plans. The law mandated that these plans describe "a healthful environment and health systems" that, when developed, would assure quality health services at reasonable cost for all residents of the area.

Health concerns assessed by the Cardinal Health Agency included infant death, heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, accidents, respiratory disease, diabetes, homicide, cirrhosis, arteriosclerosis, suicide, venereal disease, nutrition, immunization, dental health, and the environment. Health system issues addressed by the organization included home health care in home, mobile, ambulatory, short-stay and long-stay, community, and free-standing support settings. Other areas of concern included prenatal care, family planning, health education, primary care, acute care, and immunization.

Federal funding for health systems agencies ended in the early 1980s, but agencies in North Carolina continued to function, holding public hearings to review certificate-of-need applications. By 1987, state laws were revised, and the review procedure was placed with the Certificate of Need Section, Division of Facility Services, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. With funding for the health systems agencies ended, the Cardinal Health Agency dismissed its employees in 1987 and dissolved its incorporation in 1988.

The collection documents the work of the Cardinal Health Agency of Lumberton, N.C., through reports, memoranda, correspondence, audiotapes, and photographs. Office files include various versions of Cardinal Health Agency's Health System Plan and Annual Implementation Plan, as well as health project evaluation records. The Executive Reading File contains correspondence, internal memoranda, project evaluations, news releases, and director's updates. Project Review files include materials relating to decisions on proposed health projects that required federal funding. Files relating to other North Carolina health systems agencies, including the Piedmont Health Systems Agency and the Western North Carolina Health Systems Agency, contain health system plans, annual implementation plans, and project review manuals. Also included are photographs of members of the board of directors and audiotapes of board and committee meetings.

Items separated include photographs (PF-4966/1-55).