Health Care

Access to health care is a critical issue for El Paso, the state, and the nation. El Paso suffers from a severe shortage of doctors and other health care professionals, a lack of medical infrastructure, and a high uninsured population.

The District Advisory Committee on Health Care has the following areas of focus:

• Increase access to health care, especially for vulnerable populations.

• Improve Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement rates in border areas.

• Address health care professional shortages.

• Create mechanisms to work with health care providers in Ciudad Juarez to maximize patients’ chances for recovery on cross-border transfers.

• Engage in scope of work dialogue between physicians and advanced practice nurses.

In May 2011, the committee developed the concept for a binational health care conference to highlight best practices for serving multicultural communities. The conference, “Mano y Corazón: Binational Conference of Multicultural Health Care Solutions,” is scheduled to take place on October 1-2, 2012 in El Paso, Texas. [click here for the conference brochure]

More information on the committee:

•Chair: Irma Estrada, M.S.N., C.C.R.N. Ms. Estrada is Manager, Preceptor & Student Relations at University Medical Center. She is also a nursing instructor at the UTEP School of Nursing and the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing. Acutely attuned to health care issues in our region, Ms. Estrada was Nurse Manager of Intensive Care at Thomason Hospital (now the University Medical Center) for 30 years.

•Staffed by: David Stout

•Meeting Dates: First Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

•Meeting Location: Senate district office (100 N. Ochoa St., Suite A, El Paso, TX 79901).