Purchase AHEC
Connecting students to careers, professionals to communities, and communities to better health.
Connecting students to careers, professionals to communities, and communities to better health.
At the Purchase Area Health Education Center (AHEC), we bring people together for the purpose of fostering, engaging, developing and sustaining the healthcare workforce needs of our region. The AHEC system is comprised of a regional, state, and national network designed to carry out the overarching mission for developing, promoting and sustaining the healthcare workforce in rural areas by Connecting Students to Careers, Professionals to Communities, and Communities to Better Health.
Murray State University serves as our host agency, and the School of Nursing and Health Professions is our academic home. The regional service area includes 12 counties in far western Kentucky: Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Crittenden, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Livingston, Lyon, Marshall, McCracken and Trigg. Community partner organizations serve as our local connection to help identify needs, available resources, and potential opportunities for development within the communities we serve.
The is a collaboration between the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center and the University of Kentucky Medical Center. Eight regional AHEC centers and two program offices serve as links between the academic health institutions and communities across the Commonwealth.
Vision: To be a premier academic and community-based collaborative educational program to improve the health of Kentuckians.
Mission: To promote healthy communities through innovative partnerships. This is accomplished by providing educational support services to health professional students and healthcare providers; community health education; programs that encourage health professions as a career choice.
Values: We believe in serving a diverse, multicultural community using respect, creativity, and inclusiveness; cultivating community partnerships that are sustainable and responsive to community people; that accountability, integrity, and flexibility are essential components of our organization.
The links the regional and state centers to the nationwide system of AHEC programs, with presence in 48 states across the US. Established in 1972, the program is charged with the responsibility of working to improve the supply, distribution, retention, quality, utilization and efficiency of health professionals to provide primary care services in medically underserved areas. AHECs serve as partners linking the academic resources associated with university-based health professions training to the health services delivery systems in rural, medically underserved areas.