Dr. Conrado Barzaga was in the news back in late September, when—abruptly and without public explanation—he was removed from his position as chief executive officer of the Desert Healthcare District (DHCD).
At the time, the DHCD board of directors, who were responsible his dismissal, released only a minimum amount information regarding the 4-3 vote to remove Barzaga. Meanwhile, Barzaga politely declined media requests for comment, including two from the Independent.
On Jan. 15, Barzaga resurfaced as he assumed what promises to be an impactful role within the regional health-care community. As the new vice president and chief project officer for Innercare—a nonprofit health organization that provides primary medical care in Riverside and Imperial counties—Barzaga will be tasked with advancing health-equity research, medical education and building a health-care workforce.
“With Innercare, I am responsible for developing a pipeline for health-care providers, and making sure that all the clinics at Innercare are going to have the health-care workforce that we need,” Barzaga said in a recent interview. “Mostly we’re talking about primary-care providers, which are family doctors, internal medicine (specialists), pediatrics and OB-GYNs.”
A recent analysis by Market Watch—a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis and stock market data—sought to determine the healthiest counties in the United States. Riverside County ranked 473rd out of 576 counties rated across the country (only a fraction of the nation’s counties were included), while Imperial County ranked 493rd. Barzaga said his own research shows there is an insufficient number of health-care professionals practicing in the two counties.
“I have found that, for the population in east Coachella Valley, we have a shortage of about 94 physicians in those specialties,” Barzaga said. “So there is a significant gap in what we have right now to serve our community, and this job allows me to continue envisioning and working on implementing solutions to grow (the number of) physicians in our area. By working in partnership with academic institutions and other federally qualified health centers, and … with other health-care institutions like Desert Regional Medical Center, JFK Hospital, Eisenhower Health and all the health-care partners in our region, we have the opportunity to contribute to the well-being of our community.”
Barzaga learned while overseeing the DHCD community-outreach efforts that to provide necessary health-care services to underserved and disenfranchised communities in our region, not only does the number of medical professionals need to increase; the diversity of incoming professionals in all phases of health care needs to improve as well.
“When you have limited English proficiency, and your doctor doesn’t speak your language, it’s very difficult to understand the nature of your ailments, and it’s very difficult to follow procedures and to have the appropriate treatment, right?”
Dr. Conrado Barzaga
“We have pockets of persistent inequalities here in the Coachella Valley,” Barzaga said. “The east valley is a prime example. But even in the west valley, we have Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City and even pockets inside of Palm Springs where we see racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care. We need to close those disparities. Another thing that I will be working on is increasing the proportion of primary-care providers whose language comports with the region. It’s not only about having the right number of primary-care providers; it’s about having primary-care providers who are culturally and language-concordant with our population. We have a population, in the east valley primarily, where there are many people who don’t speak English, or they have limited English proficiency. When you have limited English proficiency, and your doctor doesn’t speak your language, it’s very difficult to understand the nature of your ailments, and it’s very difficult to follow procedures and to have the appropriate treatment, right?”
According to the organization’s website, Innercare operates 10 health clinics; six dental clinics; three pharmacies; three Women, Infants and Children Nutrition (WIC) education centers; and six WIC voucher-distribution sites. Its stated mission is “to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve through providing access to excellent care, available to all.” It is this inclusive approach to providing high-quality health care to the neediest residents that attracted Barzaga to Innercare, he said.
“I have known the leadership at Innercare for many years (starting) when they were Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo,” Barzaga said. (Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo changed its name to Innercare in March 2022.) “I have always been impressed by the leadership of Yvonne Bell, who started this as a very small clinic, and it has grown to become the primary care provider in Imperial County. Now (it’s) a significant provider in the eastern Coachella Valley. Also, there is a clear alignment in the work that I had been doing with the Desert Healthcare District and the work that Innercare is trying to accomplish in Imperial County and east Riverside County. So this was a good alignment, and a good opportunity to continue doing some of the initiatives that I had started with the DHCD. We want to create a stronger health-care infrastructure for the residents of the Coachella Valley, primarily looking at communities that have been neglected for too long, and disenfranchised. There is a dire need for health care in those communities, and that’s what attracted me to work with Innercare.”
After two months at Innercare, Barzaga said he is focused on accomplishing his objectives in a systematic fashion.
“What I will be doing is creating systems to attract, train and develop residency programs to train and educate physicians working in federally qualified health centers,” Barzaga said. “The other responsibility I have … is developing a research department. When we’re talking about research, we’re talking about allowing populations that typically do not participate in clinical research to be a part of that. By adding research into the institution, we’re looking at opportunities to improve the quality of health care, and also to improve the educational experience for those residents who will be coming to us. Ultimately, we need to close the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in our country, because that will reduce health care expenditures and improve the quality of care for this population.”
I asked Barzaga if he’d talk about his abrupt departure from the Desert Healthcare District, since a lot of people still wonder what happened.
“Yeah, me too,” he said with a laugh. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any comment about that. I do want to say that with Innercare, we are really nurturing an alliance with other federally qualified health centers, because coming together and working together is only going to make us stronger, wiser … and better-positioned to provide the quality of health care that traditionally underserved communities do not have access to. … One thing that I did successfully while I was with the Desert Healthcare District was bringing people together, and that’s what I’m striving to do in my new role within Innercare—bringing people together from academia, from the health-care world and from other health-care organizations to envision solutions and to create the changes that are needed for our community, and for the health-care infrastructure of the Coachella Valley.”