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What the Heck is an AHEC?
A healthy Indiana needs healthy
communities. And it needs health care professionals located in all areas
of the state from the inner cities to the rural neighborhoods prepared to
help educate citizens about health problems and issues and to provide
quality service. Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) play an important
role in providing communities with health care professionals prepared to
meet their needs.
Today, 54 AHEC programs with more than
200 centers operate in almost every state and the District of Columbia.
An AHEC is a network of regional "centers" that are coordinated
through a central "program" office. Each regional center is
locally grown and is designed to assess and meet the needs of citizens in
that specific region. AHECs perform four basic functions:
- Assist in the ambulatory training
of health professionals. Health professionals who train in
underserved communities are much more likely to serve those
populations when their training is completed.
- Provide continuing education,
especially for providers to the underserved. Continuing education
programs improve the quality of care and enhance professional
satisfaction, both of which contribute to provider retention.
- Recruit minority students into the
health professions careers. Minority health professionals are
substantially more likely to serve vulnerable populations then their
majority counterparts.
- Respond to emerging health issues
by distributing information necessary for practitioners and facilities
to address critical health issues and threats in a timely way.
In accomplishing these goals, the AHEC
can improve the quality of health care, especially primary and
preventative care.
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