Our Mission
The New York State AHEC System focuses on strategies “to enhance access to quality health care and improve health care outcomes by addressing the health workforce needs of medically disadvantaged communities and populations through partnerships between institutions that train health professionals and communities that need them most.”
Purpose/Need
New York State suffers from a shortage of health care professionals and lack of diversity in the health workforce. More than 4.4 million people reside in the state’s primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), a figure that exceeds the primary care HPSA populations of 48 other states. The New York State Area AHEC System’s recruitment, training and retention strategies are solutions to current health workforce shortages and the New York State Department of Labor forecasts that health care jobs will grow at rates more than five times that of all other occupations.
The New York State AHEC System is comprised of nine AHEC centers (Bronx-Westchester AHEC, Brooklyn-Queens-Long Island AHEC, Catskill Hudson AHEC, Central NY AHEC, Erie Niagara AHEC, Hudson Mohawk AHEC, Manhattan-Staten Island AHEC, Northern AHEC and Western NY Rural AHEC), three regional offices (Central/Upstate Medical University, Eastern/Albany Medical College and NY Metropolitan/Institute for Family Health) and the Statewide Office/University at Buffalo. Together, the NYSAHEC System implements community-based strategies that cultivate a more diverse health workforce, assuring that each community has enough practitioners in the right categories, particularly primary care, and overall improving access to quality health care for all New Yorkers.