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A group of AHEC Scholars and other COVID-19 event workers (photos provided by the Southern Alabama AHEC)

When a hospital or health care center experiences worker shortages, the impact can be far reaching. Shortages impact patient care, put strain on current employees and affect a hospital’s ability to make positive changes as it scrambles to complete daily tasks. The COVID-19 pandemic, including the most recent surge, has put even more pressure on health care systems and exacerbated many situations where shortages were already an issue.

Michael Faircloth, M.D.Michael Faircloth, M.D., grew up in a small, rural town in Alabama. His brother was born with Down syndrome and the care he received, even in a town with few resources, inspired Faircloth to put his interest in science to use in service of others: he decided to go to medical school to become a family medicine physician.

“For me, it was looking at the challenges that he [his brother] had throughout his life growing up in a small town with that disability-- but also seeing the good care that he got from the caring physicians and others that weren’t in medicine-- I think that fostered in me the want and need to pursue that as a career,” Faircloth said. “And medicine became what I wanted to do because I saw what a difference it made for him and my family. And I wanted to be able to, in some ways, affect others in the same positive way.”

That desire to serve others through medicine has sustained Faircloth for thirty years as he moved throughout the state practicing medicine. He began at UAB in medical school, moved into private practice, and returned to UAB in 2008 to work as the assistant director of Student Health Services. From that first leadership position, Faircloth has dedicated his career to advancing medicine in both rural and urban areas while at UAB.

Faircloth currently serves as an associate professor for the Department of Family and Community Medicine, medical and lab director for UAB’s Division of Student Health Services, and program director for the Alabama Statewide Area Health Education Centers (AHEC). AHEC, made up of the program office housed within the Department of Family and Community Medicine and five regional centers across the state, works to increase the number of health care workers from rural and underserved areas.

Though his time is split between these three areas, Faircloth never stops working until the job is done. Faircloth also serves on several task forces for UAB, including the Incident Command Committee for UAB which is tasked with responding to medical and community crises and the UA Health and Safety Task Force. He credits success to the importance of the work and the talent of his team members, but his selflessness and work ethic also move each organization’s missions forward.

Faircloth and the organizations he leads faced many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Faircloth said the pandemic’s hardships also spurred a lot of good work in communities that needed it most. He joined us recently to reflect on the progression of the pandemic and his own work and goals.

How did you get involved with AHEC?

Faircloth: “I first heard about AHEC in 2012 when it was coming to Alabama. There was a regional office in Brewton, Alabama where I grew up. So, I talked to the folks that were the leaders at that time. Each AHEC has to have a governing board, and since I was at UAB it made sense to me to be that UAB representation on the board. Being on the governing board was my first experience with AHEC, and I would go to their quarterly meetings and that sort of thing until Cindy Selleck, the director at the time, retired and I took over the position of director.”

What drew you to AHEC? Why did you want to be involved?

Faircloth: “I think we all go into medicine to take care of people. And AHECs, in most states, by serving the underserved and rural areas and disadvantaged folks can do more than I or others could do from here campus for the wider population of the state. We can do a lot here on campus, but AHEC adds to the reach we have here at UAB and in the Birmingham area. I liked the idea of serving Alabama, and it helped me to not feel isolated from the rest of the state. Certainly we see students from all over here, but I wanted to know I was making a difference for the community and the state. And AHEC was a way to do it, and to get back to why I went into medicine in the first place, to serve the population in whatever way I can.”

How did AHEC have to pivot during COVID-19? How did you handle those changes?

Faircloth: “The basic mission of AHEC is to recruit, train, and retain a health care workforce. And that's all healthcare workforce-- nurses, doctors, physical therapists, etc. And that can be interpreted quite broadly, but with COVID, we did have to pivot because of the needs in the state, which were initially testing sites before the vaccines were available. Making safe testing available through local community health care workers and resources was our best effort to maintain what our mission really was. We focused on underserved rural and urban areas because the challenge was greater to get testing done in those areas. We collaborated with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) and others to get that done. Once the vaccines became available we pivoted again to not just testing, but also to providing vaccines. Again, particularly in those areas where it was important to make sure that we were going to the gaps, where it just wasn't available or there were challenges. We're still trying to cover those areas where there are gaps. So we did have to pivot. We continued to be true to our mission and continue those things.”

The AHEC team, along with their partners across the state, administered more than 8,500 COVID tests and have given hundreds of vaccine doses to small rural and urban underserved areas in 2021. Efforts were made to reach often forgotten populations, like door-to-door vaccine events for the homebound or those without transportation. The statewide organization that Faircloth leads was also honored with the Community of Hope Health Clinic's 2021 "Corporate Volunteer of the Year" award. 

How did UAB Student Health have to adapt during COVID? What did that look like for you?

Faircloth: “At Student Health Services, our mission is to serve the entire student population on campus and provide their primary care. I think of us as their medical home during college. When the pandemic hit, we had to provide more testing but also continue to address their primary care needs. We had to suddenly implement telehealth, which we would eventually have done but we did it sooner than we thought we would. So that was a challenge, but our team worked to do it very efficiently.”

How did the Incident Command Committee assist UAB in responding to the COVID-19 crisis?

Faircloth: “Our responsibility here on the campus task forces or committees is to provide the best information to leadership so they can make good decisions and continue getting current, useful, and accurate resources. Initially we were meeting daily, but now it is weekly and as needed. I'm so thankful that we have world renowned experts in public health and infectious diseases on this campus. That allowed us to-- while we didn't have a crystal ball, but at times it's sort of felt like it because of the things that we were we were able to get ahead of-- make the best decisions because we could depend on these folks’ expertise.”

While the pandemic brought many changes, Faircloth noted that the work was made easier by the collaborative environment among leaders and decision makers across the institution.

“There was not one time when I picked up the phone with a need or to ask for something and didn’t get it,” said Faircloth. “I just want to recognize Student Affairs, Family and Community Medicine, the UAB Medicine enterprise, and so many others who allow me to do this job that I couldn’t do without their support.”

As the pandemic eases, Faircloth is ready to continue AHEC’s mission of improving access to health care to Alabamians across the state. As he said, “that’s what we’re here for, to improve the lives of these folks and to take care of Alabama citizens.”

To learn more about AHEC’s work, visit their website.