Grant Details

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Authority

Summary

History of Funding

Approximately $28,400,000.00 was available in total funding for 2017. 55 awards were made. Awards ranged from $103,000 per center in the POSME phase and $250,000 per center in the ID phase. Project period was 5 years beginning on September 1, 2017.

Additional Information

In the past, AHEC programs addressed the statutory requirements of the program through a broad array of activities. The AHEC Program awardees addressed the immediate needs of their service areas, which allowed for a high degree of individuality; however, the variation among programs made it challenging to measure the collective impact of the program nationally. HRSA has identified several evidence-based practices and promising approaches established through previous AHEC awards and is driving future investments to scale-up these approaches. This effort is aimed at helping HRSA and the AHEC community achieve a more sustainable, long-term impact.

Specifically, the AHEC Program will achieve the overarching Program Goals and the statutory requirements through the following required activities. Successful applicants must ensure that all activities conform to these requirements.

• Educational and Training Activities—A critical component of the AHEC investment is the provision of educational and training activities. Applicants must propose educational and training activities that align with the below provisions. Competitive applicants will prioritize the following:
  • AHEC Scholars Program: Recipients must support the development and implementation of longitudinal, interdisciplinary program curricula that implements a defined set of clinical, didactic, and community-based training activities in rural and/or underserved areas for a cohort of health professions students. For additional requirements, please see AHEC Scholars Program at the end of this section.
  • Community-based Experiential Training: Recipients must support community based experiential training in rural and underserved areas through field placements and clinical rotations for health professions students outside of the AHEC Scholars Program. Each training experience must be team-based and include a formal, didactic component addressing one or more of the Core Topic Areas: Recipients must ensure all educational and training activities support the following six (6) Core Topic Areas (Youth Pipeline activities are exempt from these requirements.):
  • Core Topic Areas: Recipients must ensure all educational and training activities support the following six (6) Core Topic Areas (Youth Pipeline activities are exempt from these requirements.):
    • Inter-professional Education (also known as interdisciplinary training), which supports a coordinated, patient-centered model of health care that involves an understanding of the contributions of multiple health care professionals; 
    • Behavioral Health Integration which promotes the development of integrated primary and behavioral health services to better address the needs of individuals with mental health and substance use conditions; 
    • Social Determinants of Health includes five key areas (determinants) [Economic Stability, Education, Social and Community Context, Health and Health Care, and Neighborhood and Built Environment] and their impact on health
    • Cultural Competency which seeks to improve individual health and build healthy communities by training health care providers to recognize and address the unique culture, language and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities (e.g., National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care);
    • Virtual Learning and Telehealth, which seeks to improve virtual learning and telehealth curricula and community-based experiential training. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all health care systems, hospitals, and clinics to rapidly implement telehealth services, simulation-based technology, and virtual trainings to continue delivering patient care. 
    • Practice Transformation, which aims to fully support quality improvement and patient-centered care through goal-setting, leadership, practice facilitation, workflow changes, measuring outcomes, and adapting organizational tools and processes to support new team-based models of care delivery
    • Current and emerging health issues (e.g., COVID-19. Zika virus, pandemic influenza, opioid abuse, geographically relevant health issues, etc.) may be proposed, but will need prior approval from the HRSA program office before implementation.
  • Youth Pipeline Activities: Recipients must support recruitment, training, interactive, and/or didactic activities developed for high school students (grades 9-12), which must focus on exposing youth to health careers, including public health. HRSA strongly recommends recipients use no more than 10 percent of the total award for these activities.
  • Continuing Education: Recipients must support didactic and experiential training activities focused on the Core Topic Areas developed for currently practicing health professionals. HRSA strongly recommends recipients use no more than 10 percent of the total award for these activities.
• Strategic Partnership Activities—Effective partnerships that engage key stakeholders (e.g., federal, state, local, and national organizations) are important to implementing, advancing, and sustaining the work of the AHEC Program. Partners help to ensure the relevancy, coordination and timeliness of the education and training provided. Highly competitive applicants will establish strategic partnerships with organizations that align with the AHEC Program goals to maximize the impact and outcomes. Such partnering organizations may include:
  • Existing AHEC program offices
  • Minority-serving institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) in the state and region to facilitate relationships with health professions schools and programs;
  • State-level entities such as State Workforce Agencies and State and Local entities, Primary Care Associations (PCAs) and Primary Care Organizations (PCOs), State Offices of Rural Health (SORH), State Minority Health Contacts, and State Education Agencies (SEAs);
  • Health Care Safety Net Sites (e.g., Federally-Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Look-Alikes, including school-based health centers, migrant health centers, health care for the homeless centers, and public housing primary care centers), Native Hawaiian Health Centers, outpatient health clinics associated with tribal or Urban Indian Health Organizations, Rural Health Clinics, Critical Access Hospitals, and Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSHs); and
  • Pipeline programs such as recruitment programs through health professions schools and other educational institutions, particularly those focused on recruiting underrepresented minority populations or individuals who come from disadvantaged or rural backgrounds.
• Statewide Evaluation Activities—To quantify the impact of the award investment, recipients must implement a comprehensive outcome focused evaluation of all AHEC Program activities. The AHEC program office/award recipient must develop and implement a statewide evaluation in collaboration with the centers to ensure that consistent evaluation tools and protocols are used throughout the state. In states where multiple AHEC program offices may exist, the program offices must work collaboratively to develop a joint needs assessment and statewide evaluation of AHEC Program activities. Letters of Agreement are required for states anticipating multiple AHEC program offices/award recipients. Post award, recipients must submit evaluation plans and final partnership agreements as an attachment with the first non-competing continuation (NCC) progress report submission. In subsequent years, an evaluation report will be a required part of the NCC.
• AHEC Scholars Program—Recipients must support the development of a longitudinal program with interdisciplinary curricula to implement a defined set of clinical, didactic, and community-based training activities. All experiential or clinical training must be conducted in rural and/or underserved settings for those students who are enrolled in the AHEC Scholars Program.

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