NC AHEC 2020-21 Year in Review

CONTENTS BUILDING RESILIENCY

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From our Director’s Desk

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RECRUIT Health Careers & Workforce Diversity

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TRAIN Student & Preceptor Services Graduate Medical Education Continuing Professional Development

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RETAIN Practice Support Library & Information Services

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STATEWIDE PROJECTS

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COVID-19 INITIATIVES

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AHEC Regional Directory

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BUILDING RESILIENCY RESILIENCY IS A KEY WORD to characterize the operations of the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) Program over the last year. As many of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic linger in our state, our Program has deployed new approaches to offer the educational programming and resources our state’s health care providers rely on while also initiating new work to meet their evolving needs and advance the health care needs of our communities.

Despite the difficulties our health care providers have faced as a result of the ongoing pandemic, there is still much to celebrate. Even more providers in North Carolina benefited from our continuing professional development offerings. Medicaid Managed Care was successfully launched in July 2021 with North Carolina AHEC providing essential support in the form of monthly webinars, digital tools and tip sheets, and regional coaching. Regional AHECs convened and supported providers and communities as they figured out how to test, trace, vaccinate and otherwise navigate all that COVID-19 presented.

In this year-in-review, we invite you to learn more about how our program has not only acclimated to but thrived in our changing health landscape and how we’ve continue to advance our statewide initiatives.

OUR MISSION AND VISION Our mission is to provide and support educational activities and services with a focus on primary care in rural communities and those with less access to resources to recruit, train, and retain the workforce needed to create a healthy North Carolina.

Our vision is a state where all individuals in North Carolina are healthy and supported by a welltrained health workforce that reflects the communities it serves.

Visit ncahec.net for more information.

With the support of a $610,000 grant from the NC Policy Collaboratory at UNC Chapel Hill and funding from MOUNTAIN AHEC, 94 student health ambassadors (SHAs) were recruited, hired, and trained to provide COVID-19 education, health prevention information, and student support at six partner institutions.

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FROM OUR DIRECTOR’S DESK

I AM SO PROUD OF ALL that the NC AHEC Program has been able to do to support North Carolina’s providers, communities and our state over the past year. Although this year-in-review will highlight some of the work we do to recruit, train and retain the workforce, so much of what AHEC does goes unseen but is so vital to so many.

We bridge experts at academic centers and the state to the providers in the community who need their knowledge. We hear challenges and partner with others to help develop solutions to them. In the end, we do whatever we can to help. This year, like last year, challenged us, and we have met those challenges.

HUGH TILSON celebrated three years with the NC AHEC Program in October 2021.

three new leaders into our Program Office, which includes Paris Andrew, Associate Director of Heath Careers & Workforce Diversity; Adam Zolotor, Associate Director of Medical Education; and Ashley Langley as our Associate Director of Information Technology Services. Their expertise and fresh perspective will allow us to continue to improve upon all that we do.

The arrival of Paris and Adam also means we saw the end of Jacqueline Wynn and Sam Cykert’s leadership at NC AHEC as Associate Directors.

We will always know them to be part of our AHEC family and be grateful for their immense contributions to our work.

Although I have the privilege of leading this organization, the credit for all of our success belongs with the regional AHECs who understand and respond to their local needs and to the staff at the Program Office who guide and support

We have much more to do. The General Assembly tasked us to study the effects of the pandemic on the health workforce. Our study confirmed what many know—the workforce is weary and many of

the regions in our collective work. We welcome

the shortages that existed before the pandemic

likely will grow. It also pointed out that no organization in North Carolina currently leads the work to plan for the health workforce that will be needed in the future. In addition to continuing to adapt our work to the evolving needs and health care landscape, we are excited to undertake this work with several key partners next year.

I invite you to explore this year-in-review to look back on some of the highlights of what we have accomplished as a system during the past year, and look forward to how we will continue the work that AHEC has always done to recruit, train, and retain the health workforce in North Carolina.

These means of making connections and establishing relationships with our health workforce allow us to reimagine and innovate programs to address the state’s current and future needs through recruitment, training and retention. |5 3

RECRUIT

Health Careers & Workforce Diversity As part of our mission to improve the geographic distribution and retention of health care providers throughout North Carolina, our program helps students interested in health occupations find enrichment activities and education programs during their high school career.

To address the need for a more diverse population of health care professionals once students reach university, we launched the NC AHEC Scholars Program in 2018 with an emphasis on supporting underrepresented minorities, rural, and first-generation college students.

In 2020-21, we delivered 149 health career programs and over 3,720 unique participants attended health careers programming across the state.

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In 2021, MOUNTAIN AHEC launched a new TEAM Health Careers Club, a monthly education and mentoring program that supported 60 high school students. The club offers unique enrichment experiences that introduce members to countless possibilities within health fields and fosters crucial leadership skills while teaching them about careers in the fields of pharmacy, family medicine, dentistry, public health, and more.

The DUKE AHEC PROGRAM shifted face-toface exploration sessions to a virtual platform, which served as the catalyst for a new ongoing partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health Sciences and New Tech, Early, and Middle College high school by offering students the chance to meet health professionals from diverse career paths online. The partnership broadens student recruitment options and information sharing among students, parents, and educators.

Paris Andrew joined the Program Office in May 2021 as our new Associate Director of Health Careers and Workforce Diversity. Paris leads statewide implementation of service line programs and activities, including the NC AHEC Scholars Program, while also serving as the liaison to the North Carolina Health Career Access Program (NC-HCAP).

"I’m grateful for the opportunity to be an AHEC Scholar. The experience was amazing, and I encourage students interested in pursuing a medical profession to take part."

REYNIAH TAYLOR AHEC SCHOLAR, CLASS OF 2021

Reyniah Taylor is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and a student at Meharry Medical College pursuing a master’s in health science and a doctorate in dentistry. With GREENSBORO AHEC Scholars, her Interprofessional Education didactic focused on collaboration among health professionals and role-playing patient care. As a dentist, Reyniah plans to educate patients on the importance of oral hygiene. AHEC Scholars helped her study regional public health statistics and the importance of addressing dental care as it relates to other issues. She pledges to serve underrepresented communities in our area and provide clinics to treat and educate patients.

She also received the opportunity to network with other students and mentoring health professionals.

FUTURE CLINICIANS LEADERS COLLEGE (FCLC) WELCOMES THIRD COHORT The Future Clinicians Leaders College (FCLC) Leadership Development Series began at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine just three years ago. The program has now grown into a statewide effort led by the North Carolina Medical Society Foundation Inc. and Kanof Institute for Physician leadership in partnership with NORTHWEST AHEC serving as the lead for the NC AHEC Program.

“This program is one that is exciting for the AHEC Program and growing since originating three years ago from the leadership of a valued colleague, Dr. Roy Strowd, at the Wake Forest School of Medicine,” shared Northwest AHEC Director

Michael P. Lischke. “It’s grown into this exceptional program through the NC Medical Society and now includes students from diverse interprofessional graduate health professions programs.”

workshops over six distinct modules.

The 2021 FCLC cohort includes 30 scholars from Cabarrus College, Campbell University, Duke University, East Carolina University, Wake Forest University, and Western Carolina University.

The one-year leadership development program is designed for emerging leaders in health care professions and places a particular focus on working within interprofessional environments across institutions. The Future Clinician Leaders College is made possible in partnership with the Kanof Institute for Physician Leadership and is led

by Northwest AHEC through a series of live virtual

Scholars began their year-long course of study in February 2021 and will continue to actively engage with faculty, speakers, and peers while taking advantage of opportunities to interact with state leaders and tackling major health policy challenges facing the state.

The 30 scholars welcomed in 2021 can be viewed by visiting ncahec.net/news.

MICHAEL P. LISCHKE is the Director of Northwest AHEC in Winston-Salem, serving 17 counties in the region.

“This unique, multi-institutional and organization extracurricular activity is valuable to help develop the next generation of leaders to drive healthcare services across North Carolina.” |7

QUESTIONS?

RECRUIT

ALAN BROWN Associate Director of Student Services alan_brown@ncahec.net 919-966-0814

Student & Preceptor Services

As part of our mission to meet the state’s health workforce needs, NC AHEC supports health sciences students from North Carolina colleges and universities and helps schools secure community practitioners, or preceptors, to teach the next generation of professionals.

Despite cancelled clinical rotations and temporary suspensions in housing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NC AHEC exposure and social distancing guidelines were developed to be used by regional AHEC housing operations statewide. We were able to offer over 45,000 nights of housing and serve 1,001 students from 2020-21.

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CHARLOTTE AHEC played a lead role in the development of processes to ensure students in AHEC housing requiring emotional support animal (ESA) assistance were accommodated, as well as the development of COVID-19 related responses to ensure the safety of students completing clinical rotations in the region during the ongoing pandemic.

Despite a temporary pause in housing offerings, SOUTH EAST AHEC was able to safely return students to placements in their region to continue their clinical education. Many of these same students volunteered to support critical functions in the region’s mass vaccination effort. Graduating on time, there were no interruptions in physicians, nurses and health professionals entering the workplace.

In collaboration with AREA L AHEC, the Office of Regional Primary Care Education (ORPCE) team at GREENSBORO AHEC worked to overcome the challenge of institutional barriers to the preceptor payment process.

EASTERN AHEC led the implementation of a survey of community preceptors for East Carolina University (ECU) Health Sciences programs.

With input from regional AHECs, the PROGRAM OFFICE created a new housing tracking system, which has reduced overbooking, gender occupancy and co-ed mistakes, and unaddressed housing requests. This tool has eliminated multiple databases for housing assignments, inadequate student tracking, and improved statistical data.

ALAN BROWN, Associate Director of Student Services, oversees our statewide services to students and preceptors.

WHAT IS THE CCEP? The CONSORTIUM FOR CLINICAL EDUCATION AND PRACTICE (CCEP) is a coalition of 96 academic partners, 29 health systems, and over 60 health facilities organized to identify, prioritize, and address clinical placement issues for health science students across all nine AHEC regions. The CCEP meets regularly to address clinical capacity issues, facilitate the placement of students in a given region, and standardize processes related to preceptorship and clinical education. Founded by Kathy Clark at WAKE AHEC, the CCEP focuses their efforts on three key areas.

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Standardize clinical faculty and student credentialing

The process of credentialing students for clinical placements (including background checks and drug and immunization screenings) can vary by health agency throughout the state. The CCEP successfully standardized this process by raising requirements to the highest level for its health system partners in 2018.

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Develop a common orientation for students and faculty

Preparing students and preceptors before beginning a clinical placement helps ensure their success in the field. The CCEP introduced a core orientation for 2019-2020 that includes information on HIPAA, infection control, patient safety, standards of behavior, and cultural diversity. Participants receive a certificate upon completion.

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Streamline the clinical placement process

Schools and sites statewide have different procedures and timelines for requesting and confirming clinical placements. CCEP has researched various online vendors to help standardize dates and deadlines for placements.

Duke University Health System and WakeMed Health & Hospitals adopted a system based on this research that was implemented in Fall 2019.

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“I hope to come out of residency with the skills and knowledge needed to work as either a hospitalist or an outpatient provider. I benefit from my program’s focus on resident wellness.”

TRAIN

Graduate Medical Education

Residency teaching programs are central to why NC AHEC was established in the early 1970s—to create a statewide infrastructure to expand the number, the diversity, and the training of primary care physicians.

We provide stipends to university hospitals and support community residency programs in general surgery, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and psychiatry. AHEC residents are more likely to stay in North Carolina than non-AHEC residents, helping to combat shortages and the uneven distribution

PROSPER AMPONSAH, MD, MPH GREENSBORO AHEC RESIDENT The WAKE AHEC Internal Medicine Residency Program was notified of ACGME approval in September 2020 and launched a full recruitment season with a virtual Open House, website, and promotional video, all of which highlighted the program’s focus on primary care and serving the southeast Raleigh community. Publicity for the residency program also highlighted the ambulatory curriculum, which allows residents to spend time in ambulatory clinic providing primary care every four weeks in uninterrupted blocks of two weeks.

In 2021, MOUNTAIN AHEC launched new internal medicine and transitional year residency programs and fellowships in surgical critical care and consultation-liaison psychiatry. Over the next three years, MAHEC will train more than 190 physicians annually across all 11 of its GME programs.

Prosper Amponsah already knew that he wanted to be a doctor before his family immigrated to Greensboro from Ghana. Driven by a hope to one day serve the needs he saw in his communities, he attributes the availability of health education pathway programs like GREENSBORO AHEC Scholars to helping him achieve his goals. In 2021, he transitioned as a graduate of the UNC School of Medicine to an internship at Cone Health’s Internal Medicine Residency Program.

“We are excited to both welcome Dr. Amponsah to our residency program at Cone Health and to watch his autonomy grow in this clinically challenging yet supportive environment,” says Emily Mullen, MD, Program Director for the residency program. “His contributions as a resident and as a future internist will be invaluable to the communities that we serve.”

of primary care physicians in the state’s rural areas.

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ADAM ZOLOTOR is the Associate Director of Medical Education in the NC AHEC Program Office.

FOSTERING SELF-CARE IN OUR WORKFORCE

Because of this, their Graduate Medical Education program implemented its own home-grown resiliency education training, Balance, for its residents and faculty. The mission of Balance is to help providers establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle while promoting resiliency and longevity in medicine.

In 2020, using large-scale studies, the North Carolina Medical Board reported that more than 50% of medical specialites across North Carolina face job-related burnout. Some specialities, such as emergency medicine, face percentage rates close to 70%.

As the NC AHEC Program trains the next generation of physicians to care for our communities, SOUTH EAST AHEC wants to ensure that we’re training this future workforce to also care for themselves.

Since its implementation, South East AHEC has reported overwhelmingly positive results from survey data indicating that their residents feel supported and feel that they have sufficient resources to meet their wellness goals.

To learn more about our residency programs, visit ncahec.net/graduate-medical-support.

Balance is a holistic wellness program that assesses the individual needs of providers and helps them develop realistic goals for success in their personal lives as well as in their careers. The team meets with each new resident and counsels them on the resources provided by our health system related to the components of wellness. These resources include the GME Connect Crisis Intervention Plan, our organizational Kind Line, and the integration of the Crisis Intervention Team to support providers when there is an adverse patient event or outcome.

Residency teaching programs are central to the reason that NC AHEC was established in the early 1970s—to create a statewide infrastructure to expand the number, the diversity, and the training of primary care physicians. ||11 9

QUESTIONS?

TRAIN

JILL FORCINA Associate Director of IPE, CPD, and Nursing

Continuing Professional Development

Through our visual course catalog and nine regional AHECs, we provide quality continuing professional development (CPD) programs designed to meet the education and training needs of health care providers statewide. Our programs, courses, and events are constantly evolving to meet the specific needs of the various health professions and to address the priority health issues of North Carolina.

Through our embrace of educational technology to faciliate the delivery of our programming in a remote learning environment, NC AHEC saw 57,997 unique participants in over 9,800 programs in the state over 2020-21.

NORTHWEST AHEC hosted the annual One Community in Recovery conference planned by a statewide committee of behavioral health providers and advocates, many of whom have lived experience with recovery from mental illness and substance use. This year’s conference, titled “Centering Equity, Justice, and Inclusion in the Recovery Movement,” focused on how racism and other biases affect mental health on personal, community, and societal levels, and what we can do to promote healing, recovery, and resilience.

To improve the quality of life of patients and caregivers facing challenges with life-limiting illness, EASTERN AHEC partnered with Vidant Health and health professionals who completed Respecting Choices® Advance Care Planning Facilitator Certification and/or the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Core Curriculum. An interdisciplinary team committed to working through challenges related to serious illness care offered six 90-minute virtual sessions reaching participants from 12 counties.

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jill_forcina@ncahec.net 919-966-0815

VISUAL COURSE CATALOG Did you know that you can search all of our CPD offerings across the state in one place? Visit our visual course catalog at ncahec.net/courses-and-events to keyword search and filter by region, credit, course type, and discipline. Our nine regional AHECs offer the very best in live, online, and blended learning, with course and event offerings continually updated to help providers address our constantly changing health landscape.

SPOTLIGHTING BEHAVORIAL HEALTH IN COMMUNITY-BASED EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES As part of a collaboration with Mecklenburg ReCAST (Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma), CHARLOTTE AHEC was able to utilize expert trainers from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and from Resources for Resilience, an organziation based in Asheville, to develop trainings focused on community-based approaches to improving trauma informed care and resilience for systems, organizations, and communities.

Mecklenburg ReCAST is a 5-year grant awarded to Mecklenburg County Public Health to address existing racial and ethnic disparities in Black and Brown communities related to policing, economic and social opportunities, housing, employment, and health. Members of the Behavorial Health discipline at Charlotte AHEC continued their partnership with the grant program by providing 31 virtual trainings with 1,016 participants in 2020-21.

Led by locally and nationally recognized youth violence prevention experts, conference attendees were provided with practical and effective tips and tools that can be quickly implemented at home, school, work, or in the community.

In addition, Charlotte AHEC also hosted its 15th Annual Youth Violence Prevention Conference in April 2021, titled, “Youth Violence Prevention in the COVID Era: Impact and Implementation.” To address increased isolation, heightened levels of stress, and other driving factors for increased violence.

This conference was held virtually with 271 attendees participating in multiple breakout sessions and panel discussions.

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CONTACT US

RETAIN

Providers can access our services by emailing practicesupport@ncahec.net or by dialing 919-445-3508.

Practice Support

Our practice support coaches are trained to work with providers to transform the way in which care is delivered in their practices. Our 32 practice support coaches serve over 1,037 primary care practices statewide with quality improvement, health information technology, and other practice support needs.

With the launch of Medicaid Managed Care in July 2021 coinciding with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our Practice Support service line provides crucial assistance to providers in the

In support of the Stop Unhealthy Alcohol Use Now (STUN) initiative, WAKE AHEC developed a CME PI credit program for participating primary care practices.

STUN aims to use practice support to help small to medium-size primary care practices identify and provide appropriate services—evidencebased screening, counseling, and medications— for people with unhealthy alcohol use. Practice Support coaches develop a systematic approach to screening and management, including electronic health record (EHR) optimization; training sessions for workflows, counseling skills and principles, and prescribing; and assistance with billing codes to allow reimbursement for provision of screening and counseling.

areas where they need it most. Read on to learn more about our recent initatives and how we are equipped to serve.

Visit stunalcoholusenow.org 14 |

for more information.

CHARLOTTE AHEC sponsored a quality improvement CE program titled Quality Improvement 101 Rebooted: Improvement Tools for a New Era for 19 employees representing eight practices in the Charlotte AHEC and AREA L AHEC regions. Funding was provided by State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU).

“I really think the practices that we work with could benefit from learning how to use these quality improvement tools. They can’t afford the registration fee, but I think AHEC could help,” remarked Erin Cloutier, Charlotte AHEC’s Director of Practice Support. “The 6-session virtual course was incredibly attractive to smaller practices that depend heavily on the presence of their staff during operating hours.

Based on the learner’s feedback, the course was successful, and the learners are planning to use these tools to enhance their daily quality improvement work.

SUPPORTING LAUNCH OF MEDICAID MANAGED CARE IN JULY 2021, Medicaid Managed Care went live in North Carolina. As a result, the delivery of Medicaid health benefits and additional services became managed through contracted arrangements between state Medicaid agencies and managed care organizations.

By contracting with various types of organizations to deliver Medicaid program health care services to their beneficiaries, our state can reduce Medicaid program costs and better manage utilization of health services.

Improvement in health plan performance, health care quality, and outcomes are some of the key objectives of Medicaid Managed Care.

This transition doesn’t come without substantial changes on the practice level. North Carolina AHEC Practice support coaches across the state

are equipped to provide virtual one-to-one assistance tailored to the need of its providers.

and developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and more.

For example, the transition to Medicaid Managed Care signaled the need for an Advanced Medical Home gap analysis tool.

The tool, which can be accessed by visiting our website, assists practices with identifying their current readiness status in moving to a Tier 3 level practice and to develop a plan and timeline for progress.

While this new plan doesn’t go live until 2022, our program is already actively offering statewide virtual learning collaborative sessions designed to provide content experts and peerto-peer learning opportunities to providers as they prepare for implementation and site reviews by the NC Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2021, North Carolina AHEC also launched support for Tailored Care Management, which will allow beneficiaries with unique behavorial health needs to access holistic whole-person care management supported by a multidisciplinary care team. This includes physical health, behavioral health, intellectual

To explore all of the initiatives and programs we are working closely with throughout the year, visit ncahec.net/medicaid-managed-care.

With Tailored Care Management set to launch in 2022, our Practice Support teams across the state are preparing providers for upcoming process changes.

This transition doesn’t come without substantial changes on the practice level.

North Carolina AHEC practice support coaches across the state are equipped to provide virtual one-to-one assistance tailored to the need of its providers. | 15

QUESTIONS?

RETAIN

Library and Information Services

AHEC librarians support any and all information needs of North Carolina’s health care providers. Whether a rural family physician in the mountains, a nursing student near the coast, or a mental health professional in the piedmont, NC AHEC librarians can support their clinical, educational, or research activities. We connect health care providers and health science students with information, organizations, and other professionals and collaborators at every step in their career.

Our librarians provide a valuable reference service to connect providers to the literature and materials they need to support their work. Read on to learn more about our services.

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MONIQUE MACKEY Director of Library Services monique.mackey@arealahec.org 252-972-6958

Our librarian at SOUTHERN REGIONAL AHEC supports their Family Medicine Residency program, continuing professional development, and regional health professionals. In a year-end satisfaction survey, 94% of respondents would recommend AHEC library services to other users.

GREENSBORO AHEC librarians moved into a newly renovated space on a hybrid schedule when they returned to the office in September 2020.

Librarians at SOUTH EAST AHEC developed a database that became a critical component of their initial COVID response and served as a centralized repository of evidence required for decision-making and policy development. This early work aided in designing treatment protocols and care pathways. The AHEC Library resources were an essential function for regional health care systems and critical access hospitals.

Don’t have an ADL membership? The AHEC Digital Library (ADL) is your portal to AHEC library services, information, and education. The ADL ensures that all providers in the state have high-quality health information readily available through a variety of membership categories, ranging from access to free resources to paid subscriptions.

PROVIDING COVID-19 RESEARCH TOOLS TO THOSE IN NEED

In the last year, the Library Science team at MOUNTAIN AHEC focused their efforts on supporting COVID-19 information needs for MAHEC and the surrounding region.

Working closely with MAHEC’s interprofessional COVID Community Response Team, librarians conducted literature searches, fulfilled information requests, supported Project ECHO training, and developed and maintained 16 COVID-19 library guides that included curated guidance and resources on a variety of topics including practice administration, patient care, testing, vaccination, and health equity.

This innovative work was highlighted in Medical Reference Services Quarterly in January 2021. Clinicians were able to access browsable resources for diagnosis, treatment, and patient education on thousands of diseases at no cost throughout the summer months.

As a result of this project, Medical Reference Services Quarterly noted that, “The team met challenges, including moving to telecommuting, balancing a growing workload, and navigating a changing information landscape, and in doing so, strengthened relationships across the organization and the region.”

EMILY MAZURE, the primary author describing MAHEC’s efforts in the journal, was also a recipient of the MAC Award for Professional Excellence by a Health Sciences Librarian in October 2020.

Published in a peer-reviewed journal, “Librarian Contributions to a Regional Response in the COVID-19 Pandemic in Western North Carolina” detailed the library services crafted to COVID-19 responses in the region.

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STATEWIDE PROJECTS Developing the Workforce for a Healthy North Carolina

In addition to fulfilling the work owned by our six core service lines, our program also coordinates a number of designated statewide projects. These projects often cross service lines and our model to recruit, train, retain the health care workforce needed to create a healthy North Carolina. With goals and outcomes set by the Program Office and work led by regional AHECs, these initiatives touch on multiple areas of our mission statement.

These pages summarize our most recent statewide work to help secure the health of North Carolinians in the months and years ahead.

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Health workforce planning. In S704, the NC General Assembly tasked us with studying the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our state’s health workforce. One key finding is that we need an organization to focus on and plan the development of that workforce. We are working with the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and others to establish and operate the NC Center for Health Workforce.

To start this work, we are deploying the NC Sentinel Network—a network of organizations that employ health workers who can tell us what their hiring and retention needs and challenges are. We’ll gather that information through twicea-year questionnaires that we are partnering with North Carolina’s trade and professional associations to disseminate. The information gathered will be used to inform statewide and local discussion about needs and solutions.

The NC Center for Health Workforce will serve as the statewide forum for employers, educators, policy makers and others to discuss workforce challenges and opportunities, identify and share relevant best practices, define metrics for success and track progress toward accomplishing those metrics.

Healthy North Carolina 2030. Every 10 years, the state of North Carolina embarks on a goal setting process to identify the indicators or measures of good health and well-being for the people of our state over the next decade.

The culmination of this process for the current decade, led by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NC IOM) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is known as Healthy North Carolina 2030 (HNC 2030). These indicators were selected based on evidence of impact on health and with input from over 400 experts and community members.

A COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER is a trusted member of the population they serve who can act as a liaison between social & health services and the community to improve their care.

In developing HNC 2030, the team recognized the important roles of health behavior, social and economic factors, and the physical environment in contributing to health care.

HNC 2030 serves as the foundation for the North Carolina State Health Improvement Plan (NC SHIP). NC AHEC is a key partner in implementing the NC SHIP. In partnership with DHHS, NC AHEC recently hosted the Annual Review of the NC SHIP Community Council Meeting and we are hosting a series of symposia on the HNC 2030 indicators.

NC AHEC will strive to align much of our statewide work over the decade with the indicators from HNC 2030.

Community Health Workers. The NC AHEC Community Health Worker (CHW) Program launched in February 2021. The desired impact

of the program is to support the development of a qualified and sustainable CHW workforce that is well equipped to advance health equity and provide all residents across North Carolina with the opportunity for health. The program serves as an anchor partner in the NC CHW Initiative, led by the NC DHHS Office of Rural Health.

The inaugural NC Community Health Workers Summit took place in October 2021 and served as an incredible opportunity to learn more about CHWs and celebrate the amazing work being done all across the state. The audience for the Summit included CHWs, CHW employers and supervisors, CHW allies, and individuals interested in learning more about and supporting the work of CHWs in North Carolina.

Implementing our strategic plan while also looking for innovations and funding to ensure that the NC AHEC Program is nimble and adaptive to the needs of a constantly changing health workforce landscape is key to executing these projects. | 19 17

COVID-19 INITIATIVES Statewide Partnerships to Stop the Spread

We continue to dedicate time to assisting our communities in remaining healthy through the COVID-19 pandemic. By utilizing our regional AHECs to attend to the needs of their counties and partnerning closely with state agencies, we adapt our program offerings and outreach efforts to fit our changing health landscape.

Our collaborations have resulted in some of our most impactful COVID-19 projects.

Work that our progam took on at the onset of the pandemic has also shown to offer lasting support and reliable resources for our workforce.

Learn more about some of our regional

The State Employees Credit Union (NC SECU) Foundation recognized the remarkable work NC AHEC Practice Support has done statewide during the COVID-19 pandemic by creating a unique opportunity for the providers and practices they support. After making funding available to each regional AHEC’s Practice Support team, SOUTH EAST AHEC was able to address the needs of small, independent practices and the communities they serve.

The South East AHEC Practice Support team utilized this funding to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) and provide pediatric cloth face masks as a means of helping practices and patients remain safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. South East AHEC was able to distribute over 10,000 PPE items to 75 physician practices across our region and 1,000 pediatric face masks to 13 pediatric practices.

work in 2020-21.

“The generosity of SECU allowed our team the ability to help our local healthcare heroes and the communities in which we live during a time when it was needed the most.”

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OLIVIA HERNDON ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, SOUTH EAST AHEC

Most recently, South East AHEC continued to support practices with distribution of over 500 “I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine” pins for their staff to help encourage and build confidence in the vaccine throughout our communities.

Statewide collaboration didn’t stop there.

Supported by CARES Act funding, EASTERN AHEC collaborated with Eastern Carolina University (ECU) Brody School of Medicine’s Public Health program, ECU Clinical Skills, and Vidant Health to develop and deliver COVID Prevention Champions—a program for nursing assistants to reduce COVID transmission in skilled nursing facilities.

Workforce surge planning playbooks are highlevel overviews of guidelines for organizations to consider as they prepare for an increase in patient volume due to COVID-19.

The PROGRAM OFFICE led the coordination and development of a series of guidelines for training and information on accessing training resources to “surge” healthcare workforce professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. These workforce surge playbooks are meant to provide health care systems, states, the federal government and other stakeholders with updated, state-of-the-art resources to promote local flexibility to respond to workforce challenges and shortages.

COVID-19 WORKFORCE SKILLS SURGE PLANNING PLAYBOOKS • • • • • •

Pharmacy Services Patients Requiring Critical or ICU Care Patients in Home-based Care Patients in Long Term Care Patients Requiring General Inpatient Medical Care Patients Requiring Ambulatory Care

PREPAREDNESS CHECKLISTS • •

Planning Considerations for Acute Care and Long-term Care Populations Planning Consderations for HomeBased Care Populations

These playbooks, supported by a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant, have served as one of our most enduring resources since the onset of the pandemic. This work was recently highlighted by the Carolina Health Services Research Center (CHSRC) as a health workforce policy appearing in their research brief in June 2021.

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NC AHEC PROGRAM Hugh Tilson, JD, MPH, Director 145 N. Medical Drive, CB 7165 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7165 919-966-2461 | ncahec.net

AREA L AHEC Debby Futrell, PharmD, President & CEO PO Drawer 7368 Rocky Mount, NC 27804-0368 252-972-6958 | arealahec.org

EASTERN AHEC Lorrie Basnight, MD, Executive Director 2600 West Arlington Blvd.

Greenville, NC 27835-7224 252-744-5221 | easternahec.net

SOUTH EAST AHEC Joseph Pino, MD, Executive Director 2511 Delaney Ave. Wilmington, NC 28403-6003 910-343-0161 | seahec.net

GREENSBORO AHEC Dereck DeLeon, MD, Chief Academic Officer & Executive Director Moses Cone Health System 1200 N. Elm St. Greensboro, NC 27401-1020 336-832-8025 | gahec.org

SOUTHERN REGIONAL AHEC Sushma Kapoor, MD, President & CEO 1601 Owen Drive Fayetteville, NC 28304-3425 910-323-1152 | southernregionalahec.org

MOUNTAIN AHEC Jeffery Heck, MD, CEO 121 Hendersonville Rd. Asheville, NC 28803-2868 828-257-4400 | mahec.net

CHARLOTTE AHEC Michael Ruhlen, MD, Director Atrium Health

NORTHWEST AHEC Michael Lischke, EdD, MPH, Director Wake Forest University Health Sciences

PO Box 32861 Charlotte, NC 28232-2861 704-512-6523 | charlotteahec.org

Medical Center Blvd.

Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1060 336-713-7700 | northwestahec.wakehealth.edu

WAKE AHEC John Perry III, MD, Executive Director 3024 New Bern Ave., Suite 301 Raleigh, NC 27610-1255 919-350-8547 | wakeahec.org

DUKE AHEC PROGRAM OFFICE Marvin Swartz, MD, Director Duke University Medical Center, Box 3173 Durham, NC 27710 919-684-8676 | dukeahec.mc.duke.edu

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145 N. Medical Drive, CB 7165 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7165 919-966-2461 | ncahec.net

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