By Mary Alice Murphy

After Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce Board President Bruce Ashburn had members introduce themselves at the Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017 luncheon meeting, he introduced the first speaker, Jim Kimmons.

Kimmons, who moved to Silver City in October, is a freelance writer, who helps businesses with marketing online and is a WordPress website expert, has developed a no-cost listing site for Silver City businesses, called EnjoySilverCity.com.

"I have created a business listing site, with icons to indicate the type of business and its location," Kimmons said. "I want to do video for businesses. I put the videos on the site and also on YouTube. I have already entered onto the site about 150 businesses. I ask people to fill out a form and I put in the listing, including a map showing the location of your business."

He said he wanted a big site full of information to draw people to Silver City to visit, to start a new business or to move to the area. He also offers coupons for people to put in their listings to draw buyers. "I can also put your menu, your order form, or a brochure that will be linked to your website."

In his blog, he talks about interesting things he has discovered about Silver City and Grant County.

He noted that he continues to ad videos to his site and recommends them for businesses, too, because they increase SEO (search engine optimization).

His site is optimized for mobile use, because 60 percent of searches are done on a phone.

Chamber Director and President Scott Terry said the reason for the website is because it's another place for people to learn about Silver City.

"We're going to also set up some dates for Jim to hold free classes on building your own website using WordPress," Terry said.

Ashburn introduced the next speaker, Hidalgo Medical Services Chief Executive Officer Dan Otero, to talk about the importance of community health centers.

"I want to talk about the health care environment and our efforts to bring us all together," Otero said. "HMS, which started in Hidalgo County, is a federally qualified health care center. It's a not-for-profit. We are here to serve the communities with high quality health care, as well as for the education of patients and health care professionals."

He cited the HMS mission and vision, as well as HMS values, which are service, culture, education, community and excellence.

Otero introduced through his PowerPoint® presentation the other members of the HMS leadership.

More details on the mission, vision and values, as well as the members of the leadership and helpful resources can be found at www.hms.org.

Otero said the federally qualified health care centers began in 1964 as a social experiment. Fifty-seven such centers now exist in the U.S., with HMS being the only one in New Mexico.

"When patients use primary care, such as HMS, it keeps people out of the emergency room, which cuts everyone's costs," Otero said. "We have to make sure that Gila Regional Medical Center, HMS and other clinics are all strong and working together."

Health care is a huge economic driver for the community, he said.

"HMS has 13 locations in Hidalgo and Grant counties, with seven non-clinical services in the senior centers, which we have always had in Hidalgo County, but just on July 1, we took over the Grant County senior centers. They are all funded through state Area Agency on Aging funding.

"With our 13 locations, we have increased health care access to everyone in the counties to be within 30 minutes of where they live and work," Otero said. "We have school-based clinics, too."

Most of those who access health care at HMS live in Hidalgo County. "Less than half live in Grant County. We also provide access to some from Arizona," Otero said. "We are seeing fewer patients, but they are coming more often. We are also a veterans' service organization. If a veteran can't get to the V.A. Clinic locally or lives more than 40 miles from a V.A. clinic, he or she can come to HMS."

He said he wanted to stop a myth—that HMS is a free clinic. "No, we are not a free clinic, but we can't turn anyone away for being unable to pay. We have a sliding fee scale, and federal requirements mandate that we have to request and try to collect payment."

In addition to primary care, family medicine services and obstetrics and gynecology services, HMS also has comprehensive dental services and is one of four behavioral health systems in the state.

"We primarily serve those on Medicaid, and we are the only dental provider in the area that accepts Medicaid," Otero said.

In behavioral health, the state requested HMS to create a pilot program, which treats the patient first, and then they fill out the forms and paperwork. "It eliminates a lot of crises."

HMS also has the contract to manage Tu Casa substance abuse treatment facility when it opens in early 2018. HMS also will become a "Health Home," and will add about 25 providers.

Otero said HMS and a regional partnership have applied for a grant to attack the substance abuse issues in the region. HMS also received a small opioid grant to provide Narcan training to law enforcement to administer naloxone, an antidote to prevent overdoses.

He said HMS's fourth service line is Family Support Services. "Anyone can walk through our door for help in health care, for a meal or to seek housing."

"We are proud of our family medicine residency program," Otero said. "We have the only one in New Mexico. Three classes of two residents each have already graduated from our program. The students have their first year of residency at the University of New Mexico or in Las Cruces and their last two years at HMS in Silver City. We could not do this program without the support of the community, Gila Regional Medical Center and physician clinics of Dr. Brian Robinson and Dr. Victor Nwachuku."

He also talked about the senior centers that HMS had recently taken on. "We've always had the senior center in Hidalgo County. We took on the seven in Grant County, because we want to serve seniors."

He cited survey results, which show that 88 percent of HMS patients and clients are extremely satisfied.

"There are a lot of moving parts to health care," Otero said. "Absolutely, we have challenges, but we are working hard. It's really difficult to recruit. We have 19 medical professionals, with 11 medical providers, five mental health providers and three dental providers. We provide 215 jobs in the community, and our budget is just short of $20 million for the two counties."

He said HMS's strong leadership is taking part in initiatives to improve quality, improve access, and improve the consumer experience. One challenge facing HMS is the $3 million it receives as a federally qualified health center. "We stand to lose that if the system changes."

"I have had and will continue to have conversations with GRMC CEO Taffy Arias," Otero said. "We have to come together to compete less and collaborate more."

Ashburn asked about the living quarters at the Pope Street facility.

"We have hundreds of students coming through clinical rotations," Otero said. "We have three apartments. The idea behind it was that it was a great opportunity to have the students on site and the students' not to have to worry about finding a place to live when they came for a few-week rotation. Our goal with the rotations and the residencies is to recruit physicians for the area."

Pam Weber, engineering consultant, said with the growing retiree population, one of the top items they look for in a place to retire is good health care.

Otero agreed and said patients are shopping for health care, and if they can't find what they need locally, they go to Las Cruces, Tucson or Albuquerque.

"Partnering is difficult, because the payers are now driving the market," Otero said. "If one of our patients needs lab work, we send them to Gila Regional. You help me; we help you. Dialogues continue. Big investors in the U.S. have their eyes on Grant County and they want to come in and take away services from Grant County."

Terry pointed out, that for a community of about 10,000, "you have a fantastic health care system. To have a Cancer Center is amazing. Grant County has medical facilities, a commercial airport that flies to two hubs, public transportation, a university; we have great facilities. Your taking over the senior centers is a big step, too."

Otero said every patient that comes into HMS brings more federal funds back to the community to provide ancillary services.

Anita Williams of the Rolling Stones Gem and Mineral Society announced the annual rock show over Labor Day weekend. It will take place at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center.