Doctors call for removal of Hidalgo Medical Services CEO

SILVER CITY — Over a dozen medical practitioners who currently or recently practiced in Grant and Hidalgo counties signed a letter Tuesday urging the board of Hidalgo Medical Services to replace Dan Otero as CEO, saying the community health nonprofit organization is in crisis.

The letter followed the recent departures of chief medical officer Isaac Saucedo and chief behavioral health officer Dr. Teresa Arizaga, the latest in a stream of providers leaving HMS, which has provoked alarm in the community.

“The persistent and severe turnover among practitioners and staff has negatively impacted the quality and accessibility of care available to our community,” the letter states. “Healthcare services rely on stability, trust, and continuity of care — elements that have continuously eroded under the present leadership’s tenure. Patients, practitioners, and employees alike have suffered due to these disruptions, leaving our community underserved and vulnerable at a time when healthcare access is more critical than ever.”

The letter goes on to conclude, “New leadership must be appointed with a clear vision and commitment to the community to restore stability, rebuild trust, and ensure the long-term viability of HMS as a reliable healthcare provider to the communities it serves.”

Among the signers is Dr. Brian Etheridge, current chief medical officer for Medicaid at Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico. Etheridge is a pediatrician who formerly practiced with HMS in Silver City, departing in 2023.

HMS board chair Carmen Acosta acknowledged receipt of the letter. “HMS takes all complaints regarding leadership, operations, and patient care seriously, and will evaluate this letter accordingly,” she wrote to the Journal. “The HMS Board of Directors has offered to meet with the authors of the letter to hear their concerns, and the basis for those concerns. HMS has no further statement at this time.”

Otero did not respond to a query from the Journal.

Hidalgo Medical Services is a nonprofit entity providing medical and other services in 18 locations in Hidalgo and Grant counties. It was founded in Lordsburg in 1995 as the successor to an earlier National Health Service Corps site, per its website. It is designated as a federally qualified health center by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, making it eligible for federal grants extending primary care to underserved communities.

Otero has been the CEO since 2016 and received compensation totaling $270,374 in the 2023 tax year, according to IRS filings. The HMS board has celebrated Otero’s initial success in expanding HMS’ services and staff, increasing primary care and recruiting physicians; and it has stuck by him through public complaints about his management style as well as litigation and discrimination claims by at least four women who formerly worked at HMS alleging inappropriate hugging and retaliatory actions by Otero.

The public position taken this week by 13 providers was a remarkable step, said Dr. Don Stephens, who signed the letter.

“Physicians, we usually don’t do things like this,” Stephens, a former site director for HMS’ family medicine residency program, told the Journal. “We don’t go out of our way to make waves.”

At a meeting of Grant County commissioners in Silver City on Tuesday, former commissioner Alicia Edwards urged the county to take an active role in addressing concerns about HMS’ management of public funds and its ability to continue providing services, including the operation of five senior centers as well as an opioid addiction treatment site.

“The county needs HMS to provide health care for residents; HMS needs county services to help attract the talent they need to provide health care,” Edwards said. “Together they provide the economic growth that both organizations need to meet the needs of their constituents.”

Dr. Darrick Nelson was HMS’ chief medical officer and founder of the family medicine residency program until he left in 2021. He said he was forced out of the CMO role for reasons Otero never disclosed to him.

“I had every plan to retire in New Mexico,” Nelson said. “I loved New Mexico. I loved Silver City. I’m a huge outdoors person. It was sort of my dream place to be.” Today, he is the CMO of a federally qualified health center in California.

“There’s been a lot of turnover … almost like a revolving door,” Nelson said. “It has an impact on patients. People come in and they expect to have a primary care clinician, they expect to have some continuity and consistency. When you have a medical staff that is constantly turning over, it’s really, really hard on communities and patients.”

Grant and Hidalgo counties depend on HMS for a raft of vital services. The organization operates community health clinics, including sites at Silver, Cobre and Lordsburg high schools; senior centers in Lordsburg, Silver City, Gila, Mimbres and Santa Clara; and locations for behavioral health and addiction treatment services.