Our Story

Senita Cactus, Desert Senita Community Health Center

Desert Senita Community Health Center, named after the resilient Senita cactus, is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center dedicated to serving rural Arizona Southwest communities regardless of insurance status.

As the Cactus Family, we provide affordable, high-quality care, walking alongside patients through every step of their health journey to build a stronger, healthier community

Desert Senita's roots starts at the Ajo Community Health Center dba Desert Senita Community Health Center which evolved from a hospital and outpatient facility which was run by the New Cornelia Copper Company which as a large mining company that started in 1854 until it ceased local operations in 1986.

Senita Cactus, Desert Senita Community Health Center

Following the mine closure, the hospital closed, and the outpatient treatment facility relocated to the mine’s former single men’s dormitory, in a more central area of the Ajo community. The health center was then run by hospital management organizations hired by the mining company for a few years, prior to becoming an independently-run facility in the late 1990s.

Today, Desert Senita is a Federally Qualified Community Health Center delivering comprehensive, high-quality primary health care services.

We live by our mission by providing quality, local, affordable health care for all. We provide services regardless of patients’ ability to pay and charge for services on a sliding fee scale.

  • In 2017, we expanded our mission to the Arizona City community.

  • In 2018, we completed a multi-phase remodel project which included a new lobby, pharmacy, expansion of exam rooms and overall remodel of the health center in Ajo.

  • In 2020, we started new construction project that includes a brand -new health center to expand access of our fully integrated primary health care services in Arizona City.

  • In 2023, we expanded our mission to serve in rural communities and we decide to be begging a new project in Stanfield and Coolidge.

  • In 2025 we expanded a Behavioral Health Clinic in Casa Grande

We now proudly serve 5 communities in rural Arizona.

We are proudly serve patients in

Ajo clinic, Desert Senita

Ajo

Arizona City Clinic, Desert Senita, Primary care

Arizona City

Stanfield Clinic, Desert Senita, Health Care in AZ

Stanfield

Coolidge

Casa Grande

Our mission is to provide

Accessible, affordable, high-quality healthcare for everyone. We treat every individual like family, supporting them through the highs and lows of their health journey. By helping each person achieve better health, we strengthen the fabric of our community, one healthy individual at a time.

Primary Care at Desert Senita Community Health Center, Laboratory services

At Desert Senita, we have a culture of learning and growing together. We believe in everyone and demonstrate this by:

1. Celebrating everyone's successes

2.Valuing strengths of our diverse, collaborative team, and individual contributions to the whole

3.Being solution-oriented

4.Encouraging and supporting self-awareness, self-care, and empathy as the foundation of our healthy culture

5.Celebrating and supporting creativity, growth, risk-taking, and learning from our mistakes

6.Engaging from a spirit of generosity, assuming positive intentions, forgiving, and righting wrongs

7.Extending trust and actively building trusting relationships

8.Modeling transparency, clarity, and accountability

Want to be part of the team?

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