MVHAL president Kate Brown, on the right in orange shirt,  introduces Dan OteroOn Monday, June 12, 2023, Dr. Dan Otero, DBA, CEO of Hidalgo Medical Services (HMS) and Steve Chavira, HMS's Director of Senior Services, collaborated on a presentation about the healthcare system in the nation, state, and local community. The gathering was hosted by the Mimbres Valley Health Action League (MVHAL) at HMS's Mimbres Valley Senior Center, and 24 members of the Valley community (in addition to 8 MVHAL board members) attended.

After a delicious meal catered by Albert of 4Seaysons RV Park, Lodge, & Country Store in Mimbres,  Otero delivered his presentation, which covered health outcomes, health spending, healthcare access and affordability, quality of care, and disparities in health system performance on national, state, and county levels.

Dan Otero at right, in jacket, informs Mimbres community members about clinic progress.Otero's presentation covered quite a bit of ground, and we'd be happy to share the presentation document with the community at large, but most important to the attendees was the information he provided about the healthcare situation in the Mimbres Valley. Otero noted that Marisa Shapiro, who has been providing healthcare services on Tuesdays at the Mimbres Valley Clinic, will continue to do so, and will be joined by a second provider who will provide services on the other four weekdays. This second provider is scheduled to join the clinic by mid-July.

Regarding the new HMS clinic that will replace the current facility, Otero indicated that the best-case scenario would be the new facility opening by October or November of 2023. He suggested that community members reach out to their elected state officials to emphasize the need in hopes of fast-tracking the regulatory process. Otero also displayed the floor plan of the new clinic, which will be on the site of La Tienda del Sol Restaurant in Mimbres, where San Francisco Street and Hwy 35 intersect.

For those with a broader interest, according to Otero's data slides, New Mexico ranked 26th on the list of 50 states and the District of Columbia in a measure of 2022's overall health outcomes. Data collected from 2001 through 2019 indicated that in 2001, New Mexico had more than twice the number of drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people than the US (14.4, 6.8 respectively). However, by 2017, that disparity had decreased to just three more overdose deaths than the national figure (24.6, 21.7 respectively).

Although the disparity had decreased over time, it wasn't a result of decreasing overdose deaths in New Mexico. That decreased disparity was a result of an increase in the national numbers. Over the 18 years depicted in the numbers, overdose deaths in New Mexico had more than doubled, from 14.4 in 2001 to 30.4 in 2019. While the number of overdose deaths in the nation remained relatively stable from 2017 through 2019 (21.7, 20.7, 21.7), New Mexico has seen an increase over that span (24.6, 26.6, 30.4).

At the county level, on a measure of primary care physicians per 10,000 residents, Grant County was 6th on the list of New Mexico's 32 counties in 2021 (6.3). In comparison, Los Alamos County the county with the 21st largest population in the state, was first on this measure with 10.5 physicians per 10,000 residents. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that Los Alamos was also ranked as the healthiest of 3000 counties in the country in US News and World Report's 2022 rankings. Grant County, in comparison, was not among the top 500.

Otero's presentation provided a wealth of information including data on costs, personnel, health equity, and much more. Anyone interested in receiving the presentation document can email MVHAL at info@mvhal.org, with the subject "Otero Presentation."