Newly confirmed New Mexico Well being Secretary Patrick Allen doesn’t dodge questions on leaving his put up as Oregon’s prime well being official in early January, simply earlier than a brand new governor took workplace.
He introduced his resignation in November, days after Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek was elected. He didn’t have a lot of a selection.
It was step down or be tossed out for 60-year-old Allen, who had spent 5 years as director of the Oregon Well being Authority — Kotek had mentioned on the marketing campaign path she would fireplace him amid criticism of his dealing with of issues with the state’s behavioral well being system.
“If I had been working for governor, I might have in all probability fired me, too,” Allen mentioned in a current interview.
Throughout his preliminary vetting by the Senate Guidelines Committee after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed him to steer New Mexico’s Division of Well being, he made comparable remarks.
Allen is moving into an company combating staffing shortages in a post-pandemic interval following the retirement of Dr. David Scrase, who grew to become the face of the state’s response to COVID-19 whereas working each the Well being Division and the Human Providers Division. He faces powerful challenges: filling vacancies; bettering entry to well being care; addressing not simply prevalent sicknesses among the many state’s residents but additionally neighborhood wants, resembling water high quality, nutritious meals and vaccinations. He additionally should put together the state for the subsequent pandemic.
Allen is blunt in regards to the criticism he confronted in Oregon.
“The actual fact is I didn’t repair the state behavioral well being system within the 5 years I used to be there,” he mentioned. “Now, you and I’d assume there are causes for that, and the pandemic is actually a bit of that, however voters don’t care. They shouldn’t should. They know they’re sad seeing folks sleeping on the streets in downtown Portland overtly utilizing medication, and so they’re sad that their family and friends members can’t get entry to providers that they want.”
Kotek’s vow to “clear home on the Oregon State Well being Authority” after her election was “a fairly pure response,” he mentioned.
Allen, who was confirmed by the Senate in February to function Lujan Grisham’s Cupboard well being secretary, mentioned the governor charged him with “taking agency maintain of the Division of Well being. … The company and the folks in it have been by rather a lot. It’s not an exaggeration to say persons are traumatized.
“And like well being companies throughout the nation, we did what we wanted to do to get stuff accomplished throughout the pandemic,” he added. “And that meant leaving some methods by the aspect of the street whereas we determined the best way to get issues accomplished rapidly.”
His trans-pandemic function, as he likes to explain it, will embrace coping with a workers emptiness fee that on paper nears 30% — with greater than 1,000 jobs unfilled.
Allen mentioned he believes the emptiness charges are overinflated for quite a lot of causes, largely as a result of some positions had been created with anticipated funding, together with grants, that didn’t come by.
His objective is to first “clear these vacancies out of the system.”
He believes the division’s precise emptiness fee is someplace within the low- to mid-20% vary.
“There’s not a sector on the market that isn’t grievously wanting workers,” Allen mentioned, including his company has to make a compelling case to focus on “millennials and post-millennials who’re motivated to work in mission-based organizations.”
He mentioned the message needs to be: “You come to work right here not as a result of you will make financial institution as an infectious illness physician, however as a result of you have got a chance each single day to assist folks, to make your nook of New Mexico a greater place than it might have been in any other case.”
The Division of Well being is within the preliminary levels of making a plan to deal with quite a lot of points, Allen mentioned.
One major focus is to determine the best way to enhance well being entry throughout the state, which he mentioned goes past having the ability to frequently see a health care provider and consists of “investments round water high quality and entry to nutritious meals, vaccinations for youths, all these issues that assist communities be wholesome. How do we offer that to all of New Mexico?”
After the pandemic, he mentioned, he hopes “folks can pay extra consideration to the nonsexy stuff that helps us stay longer and more healthy.”
Allen additionally will supply recommendation because the state makes an attempt to create a statewide well being care authority — a precedence for Lujan Grisham. The Legislature permitted Senate Invoice 16, which goals to alter the Human Providers Division to the Well being Care Authority Division.
The authority, which might substitute the Human Providers Division, would mix varied divisions and be tasked with lowering medical health insurance prices for public staff within the state.
The authority wouldn’t fall underneath Allen’s purview, however he mentioned “as soon as the mud settles from the session and we work out what did or didn’t occur, the governor can work out what we have to do going ahead.”
Looming over Allen’s job is the opportunity of one other virus, like hen flu, which is working its method by quite a lot of nations, together with the USA.
“It’s kind of sobering that this [COVID-19] was a once-in-a-100-year expertise,” Allen mentioned. “It’s nearly actually not going to be one other 100 years earlier than we see one other infectious illness like this.”
Studying in regards to the nature of infectious illnesses is only one a part of Allen’s new function — and a far cry from his childhood goals of rising as much as be a highschool band instructor. The Portland native mentioned he loved enjoying violin, clarinet and saxophone.
He put aside the devices for a banker’s ledger after learning economics at Oregon State College after which labored in varied banking positions for many years, realizing alongside the way in which his “generic talent set is I’m able to enter right into a state of affairs I don’t know a ton about, have the ability to find out about it rapidly, sort of course of by what are the issues that must occur and work out what to do.”
Allen finally moved into state authorities and ended up working Oregon’s Division of Shopper and Enterprise Providers, which oversees constructing security, office security and finance.
The expertise led former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to nominate him as director of the state’s Well being Authority in 2017.
Former Oregon state Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, who labored with Allen frequently, mentioned she was “apprehensive” when he took on the job.
“I knew he didn’t have a giant background in well being and was nervous he wouldn’t be a visionary,” she mentioned, including she rapidly discovered he had the suitable abilities.
“He’s a very good listener, he’s an extremely laborious employee, and in consequence, he was an excellent director,” she mentioned. “He introduced plenty of stability to the division.”
Oregon state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner additionally lauded his efficiency. “I’m a agency believer {that a} good supervisor doesn’t essentially should have experience in that subject material. They should have experience in recognizing expertise, hiring them and maintaining folks,” she mentioned.
Allen did “an incredible job” throughout the pandemic, Steiner added. She felt Allen led the well being company with “a shocking quantity of grace and good humor and adopted the science.”
Steiner mentioned the criticism of Allen’s dealing with of behavioral well being was unfair.
“He did the very best he might given the state of affairs,” she mentioned. “Oregon has traditionally struggled rather a lot to have a superb behavioral well being system.”
Some Republican senators in New Mexico voted towards Allen, arguing his strategy to the pandemic in Oregon was just like that of New Mexico and resulted in faculties and companies closing down.
Allen stands by his selections.
The Commonwealth Fund’s 2022 report on how states dealt with the COVID-19 disaster when it comes to well being care entry, high quality, outcomes and spending positioned Oregon 14th, tied with Maine and Pennsylvania and much above many states, together with New Mexico, which ranked twenty sixth.
Allen mentioned he first met with Lujan Grisham just about in November as he started weighing different job alternatives. He was searching for a brand new problem.
He famous New Mexico and Oregon differ in some ways. “I’m solely actually starting to only scratch the floor of understanding these dynamics and take into consideration how I strategy issues like well being fairness right here,” he mentioned.
“As a result of if I take the issues I discovered there and attempt to do the identical factor right here, I believe I’m going to crash on the rocks and burn — and I ought to.”