Letter to the Editor – Ajo Copper News
January 2, 2025
This week has been marked both by the celebration of a remarkably successful 2024 at Desert Senita Community
Health Center, a year in which we served a record number of patients in Ajo; established many new ser-vice lines designed to increase access to high quality healthcare in Wes-tern Pima County; worked to address the social deter-minants of health of Ajo re-sidents, in addition to the several other communities served by the “Cactus Family;” and expanded our staff to include incredible
new local talent as well as a number of new highly skilled healthcare providers, all while simultaneously working to improve the lives of the clinic staff, our family. Unfortunately, this week has
also been marred by what can only be described as malicious and defamatory
statements made by individuals who, while they may well have the best of intentions, lack any direct knowledge of the work of Desert Senita and who are focused on an agenda that does not have Desert Senita’s or the community’s
best interests at heart.
Only fools litigate in the media, and we are no fools, so please allow us to
be crystal clear about the sole purpose of this letter. It is not a direct response
to any individual, and no individual Desert Senita detractor will be named
or defamed here.
The exclusive purpose of this letter is to add a little truth to the mix of the hearsay, vitriol, and slander being shared about both in this publication and insocial media, the intent of which we will leave for God and the authors to determine.
The outcome of those attacks however is, unfortunately, the dissemination of dangerous misinformation that prevents community
members from obtaining high quality local affordable healthcare in their clinic. It also detracts from the incredible work done by our outstanding Ajo staff and staff in so many other communities.
For that, shame on you, both Copper News for publishing such material worthy only of supermarket tabloids
and the authors of the same, whatever your intentions may be.
Is Desert Senita Community Health Center leaving, pulling out of, or reducing services in Ajo?
Absolutely not! Ajo is where Desert Senita Community Health Center was born, where the work of the Cactus Family began and where it continues with the addition of so many new programs, services, and providers in 2024, it’s hard to describe all of the work here
as well as our support for the community (including the Red Raiders, the Food
Pantry, Ajo Radio, and even the newspaper).
The Ajo Clinic of Desert Senita
Community Health Center has seen
as many as 30% more patients month to month than in years prior to 2024, work which began in July of 2023 and continues to this day. We have doubled
our staff in and supporting the Ajo Clinics, hired and trained incredible local talent, promoted from within, and created a family work atmosphere that
prevents attrition and fosters a rich supportive environment. I challenge you to ask Desert Senita Community Health
Center staff what THEY think about working in this environment. Dollars to
donuts, I guarantee you will not be disappointed by the heartfelt answers they
share.
In Ajo from July of 2023 through December of 2024 (yes, last month we
added services), we have added the following services, programs, and services lines to your clinic:
1) Seven high quality medical providers the (including four physicians and a clinical pharmacist) now serving Ajo (June of 2023 – two part time physicians and a physician assistant served Ajo);
2) Your pharmacy was saved by our current Chief Market Strategy Officer/ Pharmacy Director, Dr. Jared Hatchard, and staff (reopened in March of 2023 following a tragic incident of noncompliance by a former staff member), and we now provide high quality care through the work of four highly qualified pharmacists serving Ajo, including two Clinical Pharmacists (one a Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner) (*Note that this work continues, including efforts to ensure compliance by all staff, including board members, with the completion of comprehensive background investigations, copious amounts of training, and rigorous compliance inspections required by the state and federal governments in order to prevent the tragedy that would ensue should Ajo lose its one and only pharmacy. This work resulted in the pharmacy’s release from probation by the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy just a few short months ago.)
3) Physical Therapy was reopened in
Ajo, and Brian Jones, MPT, PT, regularly sees patients who would have otherwise been abandoned to a system that provides no other options, including the many elderly patients of
Ajo who cannot afford (either in terms
of cost or health to travel three hours for PT). In June of 2023, the PT room
sat vacant, and it had been so (along with an entire hall of medical patient rooms) for many months.
4) Clinical Pharmacy, Dr. Toyin Esan, has brought a new level of highly specialized care to Ajo both in-person and via tele-health, care that would
have otherwise required patients with cardiovascular and metabolic disease
(including diabetes) as well as psychiatric conditions to travel three or more
hours to a specialist for the management of their medications at a level
above that provided by many specialist physicians.
This concept is new not
just to Ajo but to community health centers in general, so once again, Desert Senita is cutting edge in Ajo. Clinical pharmacy services include but are not limited to disease state management (through programs such
as Diabetes Days, a new concept at Desert Senita, demonstrating incredible results), medication reconciliation and medication therapy management, comprehensive immunizations,
and anti-coagulation therapy managem
5) Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology were introduced to Ajo in 2024 with the addition of a highly talented Adult and Geriatric Psychiatrist, Dr. Gorky
Herrera; the onboarding of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Annabel Owusu; and the assumption of the role of Behavioral Health Clinical Director by Dr. Sue Moler, Clinical Psychologist. All of
these staff see patients in-person in Ajo as well as by tele-health, and their
work has increased the Ajo Clinic’s capacity astronomically by providing
on-site evaluation and assessment for not only mental/behavioral health
disorders but diseases and conditions of aging, substance use disorders, and other co-occurring conditions as well as developmental disorders.
With the exception of a part-time tele-health PMHNP, none of these post-graduate trained disciplines served Ajo prior to July of 2023.
6) The stalled project to fully renovate the Ajo X-ray Room (yes, Ajo has fulltime fixed x-ray capacity) was completed two months ago. The stalled project to fully renovate the Ajo Dental Clinic was completed this month, with the installation of ALL new dental chairs,
x-rays, and so much more technology as well as a new floor and a new roof.
7) Ajo now (as of December of 2024) has Dental Specialty Services provided by a dentist from the Arizona City and Stanfield Clinics, Dr. Zoe Tran, a dental surgeon of exceptional training who, on a monthly basis, provides expanded dental surgical care to Ajo patients as well as dental implants (covered under our sliding scale, unlike any other health center or dental practice), conscious sedation dentistry, and more.
8) In late 2023 and throughout 2024, Desert Senita embarked on a successful mission to hire, train, and deploy local Community Health Workers/ Healthcare Technicians in Ajo and all clinics. Our CHWs support multiple new initiatives that meet the needs of the most disadvantaged members of our communities including free transportation to and from not just clinic but out-of-town medical appointments, transpor-tation for essential goods, medication delivery, the deployment of Remote Patient Monitoring equip-ment (a new service line), and the staffing of the Ajo Food Pantry. Yes, Desert Senita bears the ENTIRE burden for staffing the Food Pantry, and WE are the reason it reopened.
9) Walk-in Care is now the norm at Desert Senita. If you need care now, you will receive care now (not just
urgent care but real care). If you enter Desert Senita’s doors before 4:59PM on a clinic day, you will be seen
THAT DAY by a highly qualified medical provider without exception. The
CEO’s number is published in the lobby as a backstop to ensure that this is absolutely true, and surprisingly he receives very few calls, because Cactus Family staff care as much as he does.
This was never the reality a year and a half ago and has not been practiced
since Dr. McDonald served at the clinic.
10) Desert Senita is now a PREMIER employer in two counties (Pima and Pinal). We have NO problem recruiting highly qualified staff, because we pay exceptionally well across the board, and we do things like provide free quality childcare by a highly trained child development specialist (Evelyn Aguilar, an Ajo native) to the Ajo staff and visiting patients. We also (as of yesterday) provide some of the ABSOLUTE BEST and lowest cost (to staff) healthcare benefits available.
We do these things, because our staff and their families are our family, the Cactus Family. Staff invented that
term, and they live it every day.
11) With help from the Ajo community, a hospital is in the future for Ajo, and it is part of THIS board’s long-term strategic plan. Getting there requires revenue diversification however, especially in light of the current political climate, which is not friendly to health centers and rural areas.
Is Desert Senita Community Health Center an Ajo Health Center?
No, Desert Senita Community Health
Center has not been an Ajo Health Center since the Board of Directors in
2016 voted to expand to the Arizona City community, signing on the dotted
line and guaranteeing to the federal government fair and equitable treatment of that community as a partner.
What exactly is Desert Senita Community Health Center?
Desert Senita Community Health Center is a private 501(c)3 nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center
(FQHC).
It is not a government organization and receives no direct tax dollars, and as such is not required to comply with open meeting laws or other governmental procedures. Proportional representation of all of the clinics on the Board of Directors is required by the federal government, and all board members (with very limited exceptions,
such as a local political leader) must be patients of the clinic.
Board members
who are not patients of the clinic must represent a specific group (usually as an elected official and must not receive most of income from healthcare sources
or investments).
The purpose of these requirements are to ensure that community clinics are overseen by patients and not by current or former health care industry profiteers. Board members and all employees and volunteers must pass rigorous background checks and obtain Level 1 Fingerprint Clearance from the Arizona Department of Public Safety in keeping with both state and federal requirements for agencies serving children and vulnerable adults. There are additional requirements as a result of the Board’s role in managing pharmacies.
All Desert Senita facilities are either owned or leased by Desert Senita. No properties are owned or leased by or from any local government agency or board. Grants made to Desert Senita come directly from the state and federal governments and other grantmaking organizations.
The Board (including recent past members from Ajo) voted UNANIMOUSLY
in September and October of 2023 to once again expand the footprint of the
health center to serve the underserved
communities of Coolidge and Stanfield in Pinal County.
Ajo therefore (as determined by the Board of Directors) is one of four community (four vibrant community) health centers, each deserving equal and fair proportional representation as required by the federal government and simple ethics.
As a result of this expansion, begun in part to save the health center from an inevitable slow death (forestalled only by the pandemic) that would have resulted in the total, loss of the Ajo and Arizona City Clinics, Desert Senita now serves some 30,000 community members (with four times the number of patients and related revenue and nearly three times the staff as when it was an Ajo only health center).
This includes pharmacy services (soon to be expanded to Coolidge). This type of infrastructure has the capacity to build hospitals and further expand services in communities like Ajo who would not otherwise be able to support such initiatives. This is simple economics.
Another result of the expansion is the INCREDIBLE diversification of the workforce of Desert Senita as well as our patient base.
We are proudly one of the most diverse workforces anywhere in Arizona, serving a highly diverse patient population in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin, culture, and religion.
We celebrate, honor, and draw strength from that diversity.
Does Ajo have proportional representation on the Board of Directors of Desert Senita?
Yes, Ajo has always had representation on the Board, and with the addition of two new local board members
(elect until the completion of their background checks this month) with very diverse backgrounds (including the arts, the sciences, and healthcare). We are proud to share that Michael Huntly and
Laura Cuplin have joined the Board of Directors of Desert Senita Community Health Center as Ajo representatives.
We are the Cactus Family!
We are your Ajo, Arizona City, Stanfield, and Coolidge Community Health Centers!
Sincerely, Desert Senita Community Health Center Leadership Team
Dr. Daniel Bárbara, Chief Executive Officer
Cesar Cardenas, Chief Operating Officer
Jennifer Ward, Chief Financial Officer
Dr. Jared Hatchard, Chief Market Strategy Officer/Director of Pharmacy
Matthew Wade, Director of Quality and Risk Management
Emily Pogue, MSN, RN, Director of Compliance and Facility Licensure
Dr. Toyin Esan , Director of Clinical Education, Clinical Pharmacist
Berenice Castorena, Director of Human Resources
John Sauer, MSN, FNP-C, Medical Director
Dr. Sue Moler, Behavioral Health Clinical Director, Clinical Psychologist
Lee Anne Bárbara, School-based Mental Health Coordinator, Mental Health Counselor
Lynnae Vega, Finance Director
and the Cactus Family