The Orcas Family Health Center is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit rural health center providing access to primary healthcare and related medical services. As a Certified Rural Health Clinic, we are acutely aware that affordability of care has become an unattainable matter for more and more people, many of whom are slipping through the safety net. We are among many such rural and underserved communities that face such challenges. With these facts in mind, we here at Orcas Family Health Center welcome all people regardless of their medical insurance status or ability to pay.
Dr. David Shinstrom M.D., ABFM (American Board of Family Medicine) is a native of Kirkland, Washington whose first visit to Orcas Island was as a camper at Camp Orkila. After graduating from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington he attended medical school at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Shinstom’s interest in rural medicine took him to Augusta, Maine for his three year Family Medicine Residency training. He utilized this rural training during the five years he was in private practice in Forks, Washington, after which he returned to Maine where he was the Medical Director of the Maine-Dartmouth Family Practice Residency. Never having forgotten Orcas Island, Dr. Shinstrom returned here in 1993 where he has practiced Family Medicine ever since. During this time he has been recognized as a Clinical Instructor by the University of Washington, School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. In addition, Dr. Shinstrom has been recognized as one of the Highest Performing Clinicians by Regence Blue Shields Clinician Performance Project. Also among recent accolades, is a Group Cooperative Award of Excellence recognizing his valuable contributions to the excellence in care delivered to Group Health Patients and in promoting comprehensive and continuous care.
Family Nurse Practitioner
Family Nurse Practitioner Phoebe Hershenow, the newest asset to join Orcas Family Health Center has extensive experience working in a wide variety of settings, especially in rural and what can only be defined as “out of the way places”. Among these are included the Congo, Zaire, Honduras and Ecuador. She has worked in health care since the early 1970s including having been an EMT and received her RN in 1985. After working at a university neurology unit, an inner city Emergency Room, and for some nine years in a small town Hospital ER, she became a Family Nurse Practitioner in 1999. While Mrs Hershenow has a special interest in women’s health issues, she is very capable of seeing all kinds of patients. In addition she is fluent in the Spanish language and is more than happy to see Spanish-speaking patients.
OFHC Office Manager
Ms. Aaimee R. Johnson, CHCS is our Office Manager extraordinaire. She brings 19 years of Business Operations experience and 12 years Personnel Management experience to our administrative staff and somehow keeps everything administrative moving forward. She possesses additional expertise as a Community Health Code Specialist and is ever closer to obtaining her BA degree in Business Administration/Healthcare Management. At OFHC Ms.Johnson goes out of her way to assist patients in finding available resources that will assist them in caring for their families.
OFHC Medical and Administrative Staff: Left to right
Back Row: Vickie Johnson, Insurance Biller; Dixie Morrison, Patient Care Coordinator, MOI; David Shinstrom, MD, Director;
Cynthia Dahlinger-Koby, Receptionist; Marie Drape, Accounts Receivable; Phoebe Hershenow, Family Nurse Practitioner.
Front Row: Betsy Greacen, RN; Paqo, Holly Lund, Volunteer, Front Desk; Kristen Montgomery, Medical Assistant;
Heidi Bruce, Receptionist; Aaimee Johnson, Office Manager.
The Board of Directors
Last Row: Randy Jezierski, Bruce Heller, Ken Speck, Charles Binford
Middle Row: Bill Gincig, Jopyce Burghardt, Audrey Stupke, Maggie Kaplan, Karen Speck
Front Row: Henry Parsons, Jack Becker, Pat Muffett
Missing from photo: Steve Hopkins, Dori Mascherini, Justin Paulsen