The mission of the West Texas Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is to address the health care provider shortage and improve health care access in West Texas through education and development of the health care workforce. The purpose of the AHEC Program is to develop and enhance education and training networks within communities, academic institutions, and community-based organizations. In turn, these networks support the Bureau of Health Workforce’s (BHW) strategic priorities to increase diversity among health professionals, broaden the distribution of the health workforce, enhance health care quality, and improve health care delivery to rural and underserved areas and populations. The AHEC Program supports the following three (3) overarching goals:
Diversity: Preparing a diverse, culturally competent primary care workforce representative of the communities we serve;
Distribution: Improving workforce distribution throughout the nation, particularly among rural and underserved areas and populations;
Practice Transformation: Developing and maintaining a health care workforce that is prepared to deliver high quality care in a transforming health care delivery system with an emphasis on rural and underserved areas and communities. The service area has been divided into five AHEC regions covering the South Plains, Panhandle, West Central Texas, Permian Basin and far West Texas. Program services are carried out at the local and regional level through Area Health Education Centers (AHECs), which are hosted by local community organizations in partnership with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. One of the key components of Area Health Education Centers is that they are community-based to better meet the local health care education and health professional support needs.
