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West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships/AHEC Program
| Topics |
Networking and collaboration
Public health
Workforce
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| States served |
West Virginia
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| Description |
West Virginia has a robust community based rural health education and training system entering its 15th year in 2006 called the WV Rural Health Education Partnerships/AHEC program. The program began in 1992 created by the WV Legislature to increase the number of WV trained health professionals in the workforce providing services in rural underserved areas of the state. From 1995 to 2005 (just 10 short years), 8 counties were eliminated from the list of WV counties designated by the federal government as Health Professions Shortage Areas. In 6 years WV has experienced a 113% increase in the number of physicians in rural practice, representing a 13.4% annual rate of increase of rural physicians. |
| Services offered |
WVRHEP/AHEC is made up of 11 consortia and four Area Health Education Centers each with a local board of directors. Approximately 800 rural community leaders, local rural health providers, and higher education institutional representatives are involved in all aspects of the program. The rural community leaders have work and/or volunteer experiences in a variety of areas including: the Cooperative Extension Service, the ministry, business, local public education, homemaking, or are retired. West Virginia is the only state whose publicly funded higher education system requires all health sciences students to complete rural rotations as a degree requirement.
The partnership's 640 rural health preceptors represent 10 different health science disciplines and each has an adjunct appointment with one of the state's schools. Students and medical residents, while completing the clinical objectives of their specific discipline rotation, also engage in service learning and population based health projects designed to address many of the problematic health indicators for rural West Virginians including: heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, injury prevention, etc. |
| Results |
The following highlights demonstrate some of the success of this program to date:
• 738 health professionals have been recruited to and are now in practice in rural underserved areas of the state.
• 100,000 rural citizens annually receive services from rural health students including: health screenings, tobacco awareness, high-risk pregnancy programs, osteoporosis clinics, playground safety, sports physicals, oral hygiene, and nearly 10,000 children statewide are screened for health risk factors of dyslipidemia, diabetes, and obesity through the statewide Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities (CARDIAC) project.
• Every doctor in a rural area, he or she maintains or adds 4.3 full time jobs in that community. The 187 physicians recruited to rural areas represent a minimum of 990 jobs either created or retained in rural West Virginia since 1999.
• Since 1995, dental and dental hygiene students with their preceptors have provided over $10 million in uncompensated oral health care to rural citizens in the state. |
| Replication |
The success of the WVRHEP/WVAHEC program is because it is a true and authentic partnership of local communities and state higher education resources.
The challenges that the partnership has confronted include dealing with the basic dynamics of change and defining and redefining expertise and the role of the community in determining its health care needs. The schools have faced many challenges in balancing the curricular changes needed to do community based training and the requirements of credentialing bodies. The rural leaders of the program as well as the WV Legislature have remained steadfast in the mission of the program and serve as the stewards of the mission. The WV Legislature has reauthorized the legislation on three occasions and has reappropriated the funding through the state's higher education system to support the program. |
| Source |
Hilda R. Heady
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| Contact person |
Hilda R. Heady
Assoc. VP for Rural Health/Ex. Director
West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships/WV AHEC
One Medical Center Drive
Morgantown, WV 26506-9003
304.293.1027
hheady@hsc.wvu.edu
www.wvrhep.org |
| Date added |
June 8, 2006 |
Summaries of success stories are provided by RAC for your convenience. Please contact the success story contact person directly for the most complete and current information.
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