Dr. Jorgensen
At Outer Cape Health Services (OCHS) since 2015, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Andrew Jorgensen, MD, FAAP, FACP, has juggled many roles, including internal medicine physician, AIDS educator and trainer, participant in an office-based opioid treatment
program, and the only board-certified pediatrician on the Outer Cape. The arrival of COVID-19 further expanded that portfolio and magnified his role.
A native Californian, Dr. Jorgensen is accustomed to stretching himself. He is the first in his family to attend and graduate from college. Medical school in Missouri followed, then a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency in Houston. In
2008, he moved to Massachusetts, working first at Cambridge Health Alliance including as medical director in Revere and Everett family health centers. In 2015, he moved to Provincetown and joined OCHS, a community health center, first serving
as a primary care physician and, since 2017, as CMO.
OCHS annually cares for 18,000 patients who live in or visit the 10 outermost towns of Cape Cod and has locations in Harwich Port, Wellfleet, and Provincetown. With the pandemic, Dr. Jorgensen’s role as a community leader grew in previously unimaginable
ways.
VS: Pre-pandemic, what was your role like at OCHS?
Dr. Jorgensen: As CMO of a community health center, I spend half my time doing clinical work and half my time helping to lead the organization.
In winter, we are a very rural, isolated community, with about 5,000 people from Provincetown to Wellfleet. In summer, on a carnival day, there may be 100,000 people from all over the world, which creates a large responsibility for safeguarding the health
and well-being of our residents and visitors.
Year-round, OCHS sees patients of all ages, from the occasional baby to a considerable senior population. Being open and available to all LGBT individuals also is a critical part of what we do for our community.
One priority has been to integrate primary care and behavioral health, which we have now co-locating in all of our ce
