Asher Community Health CEO resigns

Asher Community Health Center CEO Albert Pacheco has given his resignation to the board and will depart by Christmas.

Pacheco joined Asher Clinic in 2021 after serving as the leader of a federally qualified health center near Los Angeles for several years. Pacheco helped to navigate through the choppy waters of COVID, and oversaw an expansion of services in his tenure at Asher Health.

As a federally qualified health center (FQHC), Asher Community Health gets a majority of its funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The funding targets communities with an underserved population with the highest needs in the United States. Rural and frontier communities are a priority for HRSA, and a considerable amount of funds have been dedicated to providing primary care services to Medicaid and Midicare patients in rural and shortage areas.

According to board president Linda Donnelly, Pacheco has been a visionary for expanding services and generating additional revenue.

Pacheco says that he recalls that while interviewing for the position, the board asked about bringing physical therapy to Fossil.

"It kind of took me a little bit by surprise," Pacheco said. "Coming from LA, the health centers there were expanding to offer optometry services and things like that, but I learned the community here does ranching and farming and needs a physical therapist that isn't two hours away."

It was among the first things that Pacheco tackled, with physical therapist Brian Schaudt to start services.

"We were lucky to have Brian move here," Pacheco admits, "in this area it can be hard to recruit new staff and even when funding is in place, ultimately it depends on local capacity."

Pacheco is also proud of the expansion of dental services that are currently being offered at Asher Health. The clinic had long contracted with different dental providers but Pacheco saw the need to hire a dentist. Asher Health did so in 2022 when they hired Andrew Pham, a dentist from Portland. Pham began providing dental services in Fossil and Mitchell.

"In the past, we just contracted with providers who had private practices and would come out as their schedules allowed," Pacheco explains. "I think once we were able to hire our own full-time dentist and present that consistency - not only from week to week or day-to-day - I think that that really helped patients to not just develop better dental care but also better dental hygiene practices."

Asher's most recent move was initially one that left some board members puzzled. At a conference on rural health services, Pacheco learned of some significant gaps in services for people in the Christmas Valley area. Again, Pacheco wrote a grant and was able to get funding, expanding Asher's footprint in the state and nearly doubling the number of patients served.

"Christmas valley isn't next door to us," Pacheco says. "But it allows us to leverage more funding, so instead of being a clinic that only has 1,000 patients, we can serve Christmas Valley and hopefully, in the future, will have 3,000 patients."

The funding from HRSA is heavily weighed on a per-patient ratio, and Pacheco believes that the expansion to Christmas Valley will bring additional resources for the organization.

Pacheco's resignation took the board by surprise, said President Linda Donnelly. But the organization is also on strong footing and with a very capable board, she said.

"Teresa Hunt has been the CFO for a long time, and has worked at Asher for 24 years," Donnelly said. "She has worked there in several different positions," and the board agreed to put Hunt at the helm.

"She knows more about what FQHCs need to do more than anyone else," Donnelly said.

In addition, former staff member Susan Moore, who resigned in June, and former CEO James Carlson have offered to lend their support if necessary.

In addition to Donnelly, the board is comprised of capable individuals. Donnelly highlights contributions made by Penny Fender, the Superintendent of the North Central Education Service District (NCESD), whose strength in contractual obligations and organizational development are an asset to the organization.

Toney Ryno is also a longtime board member and Donnelly says, is one of the strongest board members in the history of the health center.

Bonnie Lofton, who has been a passionate member of the board since the beginning of the organization's involvement with federal grants, has also been instrumental, Donnelly says.

"We're looking at a lot of things," Donnelly says. "Albert's retirement seems chaotic but it gives us some opportunities."