About NE PA AHEC

What is an AHEC?

Congress developed the AHEC (Area Health Education Centers) program in 1971 to recruit, train and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations. Today, AHECs are established and supported nationally through ongoing funding and program administration from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to "increase diversity among health professionals, broaden the distribution of the health workforce, enhance healthcare quality, and improve health care delivery to rural and underserved populations."

What We Do

We connect students and professionals with the tools, training and resources necessary to develop an effective healthcare workforce to provide quality healthcare, with a focus on primary care for rural and underserved communities. We provide education, recruitment, and retention programs to build and support the healthcare workforce in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Why It Matters

Northeast PA AHEC supports all points along the health professions pathways to increase the diversity and broaden the distribution of the healthcare workforce, improve healthcare quality, and enhance delivery of healthcare to rural and underserved areas.

Our programs:

Our programs focus on Healthcare Workforce Development and Community Health Education. Our Healthcare Workforce Development efforts aim to improve the supply, distribution, retention, quality and efficiency of all health professionals. We seek to reach this goal through recruiting, training and retaining healthcare professionals in our region. Our Community Health Education efforts bring awareness of pertinent health issues to people in our region. We evaluate public health needs of our communities and provide educational programs for children and adults in response to those needs.

Funding for the Area Health Education Center is provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The Commonwealth's medical community and communities at large provide additional support.