Workforce Development

San Francisco Area Health Education Center (AHEC)

The Need

Primary health care enables health systems to support a person’s health needs – from health promotion to disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, palliative care and more. This strategy also ensures that health care is delivered in a way that is centered on people’s needs and respects their preferences (WHO).

The United States is experiencing a primary care workforce shortage. This shortage of primary health care providers is the result of a wave of aging baby boomers, epidemics of diabetes and obesity, and the Affordable Care Act, which brought health care coverage to millions more Americans.

 The demand for safety net providers is predicted to keep increasing. As such, the health professional shortage is acutely experienced in community health centers (CHCs) which are a key part of the health care safety net. On the local level, the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most expensive places in the country to live. The salaries of the primary care workforce are already low compared other regions, and even lower for those serving vulnerable populations in CHCs. As a result, the demand for primary care providers with multiple cultural competencies far exceeds the supply.

How SFCCC and the SF AHEC are Making a Difference

Since 2004, SFCCC has served as the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-designated SF Area Health Education Center (AHEC). The San Francisco AHEC’s mission is to promote workforce development in our member CHCs and Street Outreach Services (SOS) mobile clinic, through training of future health care professionals and continuing education for current CHC staff.

The San Francisco AHEC is made up of four components:

AHEC SCHOLARS PROGRAM

San Francisco’s AHEC Scholars program is run by the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium (SFCCC). SFCCC represents twelve non-profit community health centers that provide comprehensive, culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare for all, regardless of ability to pay. San Francisco AHEC Scholars are health professional students who want to supplement their education by partnering with Community Health Centers to improve the health of underserved San Francisco residents. The San Francisco AHEC program enables high-potential students with an interest in social justice to explore primary care provision and the community healthcare model through an interdisciplinary lens.

Are you a health professional student interested in Community Health? Click HERE to apply and learn more.

 

AHEC TRAINING CENTER

The goal of the AHEC Training Center is to enhance knowledge and skills to support practice transformation. The AHEC Training Center provides inter-professional continuing education for providers and staff of SFCCC’s twelve partner community clinic organizations.

 

SOS RESIDENCY ROTATIONS

SFCCC’s HRSA/BPHC Section 330(h) Health Care for the Homeless mobile medical outreach program, Street Outreach Services, promotes greater diversity among health professionals and better distribution of care for underserved populations by providing inter-professional clinical experiences through rotations and internships for medical residents and other health professions students.

We partner with UCSF School of Medicine’s internal medicine and family practice residency programs and psychiatric nurse practitioner program, SF Department of Public Health, and others.

  • Click HERE to learn more.

NATIONAL HEALTH CORPS SAN FRANCISCO - AMERICORPS

In May 2019, SFCCC was selected to be a new National Health Corps (NHC) operating site under the AmeriCorps program administered by Health Federation of Philadelphia.

This partnership means San Francisco will once again have a community health-focused AmeriCorps program, with a corps of 18 members beginning this fall for 10.5 months of service. NHC members will gain invaluable experience while supporting the health care safety net by serving at host sites such as community health centers and Department of Public Health locations to provide health education and care to vulnerable and underserved SF residents.

  • Click HERE to learn more.

This publication was supported by the California AHEC with HRSA grant number U77HP23071