After 20 years at Hidalgo Medical Services, Marlene Baska, Certified Physician Assistant, will officially hang up her stethoscope.  Marlene Baska has been in health care in some capacity for over 54 years.  Her career began as a nurse’s aide in High school, prompting her to pursue training and education as a Registered Nurse.  As an RN, she worked with Physician Assistants who persuaded her to pursue a career in medicine after twelve years as a registered nurse. 

Physician Assistants have been around since 1964, and the concept was founded by Dr. Eugene Stead, who recognized early that physicians learn best when applying their knowledge.  Recognizing the need for primary care physicians and the time needed to train them, he worked with Duke University to establish a training program for nurse clinicians, but after he failed to gain accreditation for nurse clinicians, he began to train military medics and corpsmen as the first Physician Assistants.  Today, the name has changed to Physician Associates.  Marlene graduated from The University of Utah School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program in 1988.  In 1987, there were approximately 52 physician assistant training programs and 16,000 PAs in the country.  Today, the country has 306 PA programs and approximately 158,470 PAs. 

When Marlene completed her PA training, she worked in rural Alaska, often taking a plane or a boat to reach remote communities.  Marlene’s years of experience, coupled with her training as a PA, set her up to do well in these types of environments.  However, what has set Marlene apart is her ability to connect with her patients as people, as humans need more than just a diagnosis.  Marlene sees her patients as more than just patients but as friends and people with whom she has shared many of life’s most difficult moments.  Medicine is more than an academic endeavor; it requires clinicians to be healers, recognizing an individual's mind, body, and soul.  Marlene embodies what it means to be a healer but also joins her patients in their quest for their best health.  Over her storied career, she has managed what many physicians and clinicians fail to do:  heal with empathy, with academic brilliance, and with a caring, open heart.   

Marlene’s literal servant's heart has led her to work in New Mexico, one of the country’s most underserved areas. Marlene was instrumental in growing a busy medical practice in Bayard, New Mexico, and now, most recently, in Animas, New Mexico.  The Animas clinic went from 4 -hours a week of patient care to, at its max, four days a week of patient care.  Marlene has cared for generations of patients and is now caring for what she calls “grand patients.”  These “grand-patients” are the grandchildren of her patients whom she cared for when they were young. 

"I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve those living in rural areas.  It has been an honor to expand services to those in need," says Marlene. “Marlene’s skills, years of experience, and amazing ability to merge the practice of medicine into the art of medicine will be sorely missed,” says Isaac Saucedo, the organization’s Chief Medical Officer and fellow Physician Assistant. Marlene’s reach has extended to thousands of individual lives over her career and will continue long after she retires.  Now, she will have plenty of time to spend with her family and pursue her interests in gardening, canning, sewing, visual arts, lapidary, jewelry making, beekeeping, and building birdhouses. “The HMS leadership team and Board of Directors extend their gratitude for Marlene’s many years of service to HMS, its patients, and the communities we serve. We also wish our congratulations on her retirement.” Stated Dr. Dan Otero, HMS CEO.