Health Center Hero Spotlight: Desiree ortiz, chw
If you are from a small town, you know there is at least one person who is a pillar of the community – someone just about everyone knows (or has at least heard of) and who serves as a keystone for anyone needing information, services, or even just a hug and a sympathetic ear. Their love for the community can be felt in their passionate and tireless work to make it a better place. In Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, that person is Desiree Ortiz.
Ortiz is a certified Community Health Worker (CHW) and began her career at Keystone Health Center in Chambersburg over two decades ago on World AIDS Day (December 1), which was fitting for her first role in patient registration assisting with HIV testing in the dental care office. She discovered a passion for working with the community on HIV testing and education, so she later found a position elsewhere that focused on that work. But Keystone wasn’t ready to give her up just yet and approached her to return as an HIV Outreach Worker a short time later.
“One day they came to my store looking for me instead of calling me,” she recalled. “It was supposed to be a temporary position, but from ‘temporary’ it went to twelve years!”
Keystone Health Center is the only Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Franklin County. FQHCs, commonly known as Community Health Centers (CHC), make up the largest network of primary healthcare providers in the Commonwealth, serving nearly a million patients annually at over 400 sites in underserved rural and urban areas. These mission-focused health centers provide integrated medical, dental, and behavioral health care services for all patients, regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status.
Originally from Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Ortiz moved to Greencastle 23 years ago to live with her uncle and find new opportunities that she didn’t have back home. She certainly made the most of those new opportunities, and now she is making a huge impact on the communities of Franklin County. “718 is my hood, but 717 is my home – that’s my saying,” Oritz explained.
Ortiz has forged a deep bond with her community and is known by many nicknames, but particularly the “Goodie Girl,” due to her natural ability to connect with people, provide them with resources, and make a difference in their lives. Being out in the community, seeing their smiles, and receiving hugs when they see her is one of her favorite things about working at the health center.
“To know that they have someone that is there for them that could help them, that could guide them…working with them, trying to show them a different path is pretty cool,” Ortiz reflected on her tenure at Keystone Health Center.
Keystone Health Center, founded in 1986, has grown from three part-time volunteers to over 540 employees who serve over 59,000 patients each year. In addition to providing a positive company culture and generous benefits packages, Keystone can also attribute their success in growing their team to providing training opportunities within the health center to help employees like Ortiz advance their career.
The “Goodie Girl” decided she would like to serve the community even further by getting a clinical education and working in direct patient care, so she applied for the Medical Assistant (MA) training program at Keystone Health. “You know, I only have a high school degree, and I wanted to do better. I wanted to be more. I have it good with Keystone,” she explained.
Oritz is halfway through the 30-week program, which is offered to her at no cost and includes coursework through the National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA) and intensive clinical internship right at Keystone Health Center. An integral part of the healthcare team, medical assistants serve as liaisons between patients and other medical staff, working in clinics, medical offices, and hospitals to fulfil both administrative tasks and patient care duties such as making appointments, taking vital signs, and drawing blood.
This is no easy feat for a single mom of three children. She cites the support she receives from her sons, her sister, and her coworkers at Keystone as motivation to pursue this next career path.
“I’m doing it. It’s hard. It’s time consuming. You have to be very disciplined with due dates and time. But I took the opportunity – I’m like, ‘why not?’”
While she has been continuing her education, Ortiz has had to learn to separate being a student from being an employee. “Working in a non-clinical setting [as a CHW] is very different than working in a clinical setting.” There is the added challenge of occasionally bumping into community members or her HIV clients during her internship and navigating those interactions in a way that is respectful and compliant with patient privacy laws.
In addition to navigating the challenge of being a student with being an employee at Keystone, Ortiz also must navigate the stigma around health awareness in her role, particularly when it comes to HIV. “Not everybody is open about health awareness. I need to work around that. It’s challenging what I do, and I respect everybody.”
Ortiz will continue to study and complete her internship for the next 15 weeks, and then she will qualify to sit for the Medical Assistant certification exam. Once she has earned her certification, Ortiz plans to stay at Keystone Health Center and transition into a Medical Assistant role in her office. Her dream is to one day have a mobile unit to bring the HIV testing and education right into and all around the community.
“I’m staying here because they understand my personal situation at home. They have been very flexible with me. I stay at this organization for so many reasons. I like the people I work with. I have a good relationship with each and every person.”
But of all the accomplishments Ortiz has achieved thus far, the one she is most proud of is earning her high school diploma.
“It was hard for me to get it. I had to sacrifice a lot for my family. When you don’t have the backbone of education, you don’t know if you are going to need it. But I got to say, getting my high school diploma meant a lot. And now that I can see my diploma and my son’s diploma, I feel like I have made a trend for my kids. I didn’t have parents, and my siblings are my other kids – I love them dearly. To show that I could do it as the oldest is a beautiful trend.”
For others who may be considering pursuing a career as a Medical Assistant, Ortiz recommends getting to know yourself first and finding out if this career path is right for you by shadowing or talking with a Medical Assistant before applying for a program. “As a Medical Assistant, if you don’t have a heart for people and a respect for cultures, it’s not for you,” Ortiz advises.
Ortiz acknowledges that the staff at Keystone Health Center has been incredibly influential in her success, allowing her to do what she is passionate about and pushing her to achieve her goals. Without the support of her supervisors and coworkers, she admits she wouldn’t be where she is today.
That support is one of many reasons Ortiz would recommend working in a Community Health Center like Keystone. She also notes that the health centers know what their communities need, bringing health education and access to care to those who might not otherwise be able to receive it.
If you would like to explore a rewarding career in one of Pennsylvania’s Community Health Centers, the Pennsylvania Primary Care Career Center is here to help. The PA Primary Care Career Center, part of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers and funded by a generous grant from the Department of Health, serves as a free resource to match primary care providers and staff, such as physicians, dentists, medical assistants, and front office staff, with compatible job opportunities at Community Health Centers and other safety net facilities. For more information, visit the Career Center’s website at https://paprimarycarecareers.org.