Northwest AHEC Practice Support would like to celebrate great work going on in its seventeen-county region. Grace Clinic of Yadkin Valley in Elkin, NC was one of six Free and Charitable Clinics nationally that received funding from grantee: Becton, Dickenson and Company (NYSE:BDX) to provide multi-year diagnostic testing.  This initiative which began in 2017 is called Point of Care, Enhancing Clinical Effectiveness (PoCECE) program.  The PoCECE program provides a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) waived point-of-care test system consisting of instruments, reagents and quality control to perform the following tests: Cholesterol, LDL, HDL, Triglycerides, Macroscopic Urinalysis, Microalbumin, INR, Hemoglobin A1c, Strep A, HIV, Rapid Hepatitis C, Pregnancy, Flu A & B, and RSV.  The grants also include technical support consisting of standard operating procedures, equipment setup and configuration, competency training and documentation.¹

The Office of Rural Health (ORH) and North Carolina Area Health Education Center (AHEC) invite you to participate in no-charge educational offerings to learn more about screening for unmet social needs, NCCARE360, and human service organizations in the region.

Social determinants awareness has become a consistent consideration in healthcare as we've become intentional about recognizing the environmental, social, and other factors leading to suboptimal health outcomes. Housing and the demand for safe and affordable housing is a challenge in many communities.