December 15, 2005
For the past year, YKHC has planned and developed a new Yukon-Kuskokwim Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in collaboration with the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) School of Nursing and internal partners. YKHC’s corporate training and development functions and current staff, formerly known as the Learning Center @ YKHC, will be incorporated into the YK AHEC.
This new partnership provides an opportunity for YKHC to enhance staff development as well as sustain our Career Pathways program.
AHECs create formal relationships between universities and community partners to strengthen the health workforce in underserved communities. They encourage youth in underserved areas to go to college and pursue a health career, encourage health professions students to go to work in underserved areas, and support continuing education opportunities for health professionals who are working in underserved areas.
In the next three years, additional AHEC Centers will be created in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Mat-Su and other areas of Alaska.
Alaska’s rural areas struggle with a health workforce crisis. Eighteen percent of jobs created in Alaska over the past decade are in health care—higher than the Lower 48. The entire state of Alaska is designated a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) or Medically Underserved Area (MUA).
Last year, the State of Alaska funded UAA to look at recruitment costs for 13 different provider types in rural health facilities (physicians, pharmacists, midlevel providers, nurses, dentists, hygienists, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, masters- level therapists, and LCSWs). The study included 330 clinics, hospitals, and mental health centers, both tribal and non-tribal.
- The average new hire costs up to $38,000, including training and locums/ travelers.
- Rural Alaska spent $12 million last year in recruitment costs, more than 40 percent in locums/travelers.
- Regional tribal organizations invested an average of $70,000 per hire.
AHEC is one example of infrastructure resources that have previously been inaccessible to Alaska. It is hoped that the AHEC can be leveraged with other innovative strategies to address our health workforce shortage.