Last updated September 20, 2022 at 12:40 p.m.

In March 2021, NC AHEC released the Pandemic Health Care Workforce Study at the direction of the North Carolina General Assembly. The study details the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health care workforce and health care delivery across the state and recommends strategies for better addressing the current pandemic and to better prepare for future health crises. Click here to view the study.

Ensuring an adequate and appropriately trained workforce in hospitals, health systems, and practices is an essential component of preparation for and management of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To support that work, the NC AHEC Program has prepared a new resource for COVID-19 Surge Planning. The COVID-19 Preparedness Checklists, Planning Considerations for Acute Care and Long-term Care Populations and Planning Considerations for Home-Based Care Populations, are high-level overviews of guidelines for organizations to consider as they prepare clinical spaces, workforce skills, and patient care supplies for an increase in patient volume in the wake of COVID-19. The CDC has released guidance on preparations for COVID-19 in outpatient and ambulatory care settings. 

To specifically support workforce planning to meet the surge demands for distinct patient care populations, the overview is accompanied with a series of other guidelines, or playbooks, that match strategies for maximizing skill utilization with appropriate resources for training, cross-training, and retraining workers.

At each Basecamp link, there is a download button at the bottom of the page that converts the document to a PDF for viewing. These are living documents and will be updated as additional resources become available.  Please send feedback and suggestions to NCAHECworkforcesurge@gmail.com.

Playbooks

COVID-19 Workforce Skills Surge Planning Playbook for Pharmacy Services

COVID-19 Workforce Skills Surge Planning for Patients Requiring Critical or ICU Care

COVID-19 Workforce Skills Surge Planning for Patients in Home-based Care

COVID-19 Workforce Skills Surge Planning for Patients in Long Term Care

COVID-19 Workforce Skills Surge Planning Playbook for Patients Requiring General Inpatient Medical Care

COVID-19 Workforce Skills Surge Planning for Patients Requiring Ambulatory Care

Preparedness Checklists

Planning Considerations for Acute Care and Long-term Care Populations

Planning Considerations for Home-Based Care Populations

MOUNTAIN AHEC at a glance

Located in the mountains of Western North Carolina, MAHEC is a national leader in innovative team-based primary care, medical education, and rural health workforce development. MAHEC’s main campus in Asheville, NC is home to primary care practices, graduate medical education programs, continuing professional development programs, a state-of-the-art medical simulation center, and UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC, an academic health center that promotes interprofessional education and practice through programs affiliated with the University of North Carolina’s top-ranked schools of medicine, public health, pharmacy, and dentistry.

MISSION

MAHEC provides and supports educational activities and services in the western part of the state with a focus on primary care in rural communities and those with less access to resources to recruit, train, and retain the workforce needed to create a healthy North Carolina.

SERVICE AREA

MAHEC serves patients, healthcare professionals, learners, and community partners throughout a 16-county region in Western North Carolina. Counties served are Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, and Yancey.

SUB-REGIONS

MAHEC employs more than 1,100 faculty and staff members at its patient care practices, academic health center, and rural and hospital-based residency and fellowship programs. View MAHEC locations.

CORE SERVICES & DISTINCTIVE PROGRAMS

MAHEC operates patient care offices and residency programs in dentistry, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pharmacy, psychiatry, and transitional year. MAHEC’s fellowship programs include addiction medicine, maternal fetal medicine, psychiatry, rural medicine, sports medicine, and surgical critical care.

Other core services include:
Continuing Professional Development,
Health Careers Pipeline Programs,
AHEC Scholars,
Student Services,
Practice Consulting,
Library Services, and
Research.

UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC programs:

School of Medicine Asheville Campus
Master of Public Health Program (UNC Gillings School – UNC Asheville)
Adams Rural Oral Health and Wellness Scholars (School of Dentistry)

Distinctive MAHEC programs include the Center for Health Aging, Centering Pregnancy, Certified Community Behavioral Health Center, Project CARA, Minority Medical Mentoring Program, Post-Acute COVID-19 Care Clinic, Project ECHO virtual case-based learning, Project PROMISE (rural health careers programming), rural health workforce initiatives, a state-of-the-art medical simulation center, and statewide initiatives to expand access to substance use disorder treatment.

GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP

Mountain Area Health Education Center, Inc. (MAHEC) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. MAHEC’s board of directors, comprised of community leaders and representatives from across Western North Carolina, guides the strategic growth and direction of the organization.

William Hathaway, MD, MAHEC CEO
Amy Russell, MD, Chief Medical and Population Health Officer
Jeff Pigg, Chief Operations Officer
Annie McClintic, Chief Talent Officer
Francisco Castelblanco, RN, DNP, AHEC Director; Chair, Department of Continuing Professional Development
Zach Levin, CPA, Chief Financial Officer
Steve Buie, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Psychiatry
Beth Buys, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stephanie Call, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Internal Medicine
Stephanie Rosener, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Family Medicine
Bryan Hodge, DO, Chair, Department of Community and Public Health
Katherine Jowers, DDS, Chair, MAHEC Department of Oral Health and Dentistry
Ameena Batada, DrPH, MPH, Co-Director, UNC Asheville-UNC Gillings MPH Program
Sarah Thach, MPH, Co-Director, UNC Asheville-UNC Gillings MPH Program
Sandra Whitlock, MD, Director and Assistant Dean, UNC School of Medicine, Asheville Campus
Mollie Scott, PharmD, Regional Associate Dean, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy; Chair, Department of Pharmacotherapy at UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: 121 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803
Phone: 828-257-4400
Email: webmaster@mahec.net
Website: mahec.net

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