Board member profile: Joe Ichter
The latest addition to the Project Access NOW board happens to have the most experience with the Project Access model. In 1998 Joe Ichter, in partnership with the Santa Fe County Medical Society, founded the 8th Project Access program in the United States, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In conjunction with his work in Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico, he served as its Executive Director until 2007.
At the same time, “Project Access in the Portland/Vancouver area is more challenging than the Santa Fe community. There, we worked with 80 physicians and two hospitals. Here we have close to 3,000 physicians and work with 7 hospital systems and 14 hospitals. It’s a lot more fun here, with different dynamics.”
Prior to Joe’s move to Portand, he spent two years on Saint Martin, in the Caribbean, developing public health research infrastructure between the island’s Dutch and French governments. In July 2009, he was recruited to OHSU, where he works as assistant professor in Family Medicine and Director of the Oregon Locum Tenens Cooperative.
Though Joe doesn’t recall exactly how he got connected to Project Access NOW, he remembers the first meeting with Executive Director Linda Nilsen-Solares and Board Chair Mark Rosenberg, in late 2009, as well as attending the inaugural Bridges to Healthcare event.
Joe said, “Because of my knowledge of the Project Access system, [Linda and Mark] asked me to serve on a committee. I’ve been on the Development and Marketing Committee since April of this year. I had just met other board members and stakeholders at the fundraiser.”
As a self-proclaimed “strong advocate of universal healthcare”, Joe understands the economic and social consequences of being uninsured and lacking access to medical care.
“Programs like Project Access are primarily for the uninsured, working-poor,” Joe said. “The patients served contribute to the economy, but have no access to specialty care. If a family’s wage earner becomes sick and can’t access medical care, he or she may lose time from work or the job itself. The financial and health consequences can be devastating.”
The demonstrated impact of Project Access is the reason Joe can say he “completely and utterly” believes in the program. Project Access NOW board service allows him to continue and expand on the work he’s done in healthcare policy and strategic planning.
“The board is a phenomenal group of individuals. Everyone is so passionate about what they’re doing. That passion fuels the energy on the board. We’re now figuring out how Project Access NOW best fits into what healthcare will become as health reform kicks in – what populations we will serve, how different the services will be, how to adapt most successfully.”
(December 2010)
