MCHC Health Centers is proud to welcome physician assistant Omar Ibarra, who is now seeing patients ages 12 and older Monday through Friday at Hillside Health Center in Ukiah. He is bilingual and looks forward to caring for both Spanish and English speakers. Ibarra has always wanted to work in the medical field.
“My mom was a nurse, and I got to see how important both physical and mental health were to helping people thrive in their everyday lives,” he says. While he was completing his undergraduate degree, he shadowed a physician assistant and saw firsthand that this was the right career path for him. “I’ve been on that track ever since,” he says.
As he made steps toward that goal, Ibarra worked as a medical scribe, which is a person who does documentation for a medical provider, freeing up the provider to focus on patient care. He then worked for three years as a medical assistant in cardiology, infectious disease, and primary care. Ibarra believes in MCHC’s model of caring for all people regardless of circumstances, background, or ability to pay.
He has experienced how crucial this support can be in his own life. “I grew up in Chicago, predominantly living in underserved areas,” he says. He noted that he and his family and friends relied on medical care from clinics and facilities that did not turn anyone away.
“I want to reinforce the social safety net that has caught me so many times before,” he says of choosing to work in a clinic with the same prior.