THERE are four rooms that represent the health and wellness philosophy and intention behind the Rio Grande Wellness Center, which had a groundbreaking ceremony here Thursday and plans to open by spring 2024.
One room will connect the community to each other. One room will serve as a nutrition hub. A third room will create mindfulness with built in meditating rooms. A fourth room will emphasize movement and link to nearby walking paths.
It’s all based on the Blue Zones concept of living, where personal connections, nutrition, mindfulness, and the ability to exercise naturally are emphasized and practiced.
“There’s not another single hospital doing this. We’re on the cutting edge,” said Arlene Harms, the health-focused CEO of Rio Grande Hospital Clinic.
“As hospitals,” she said, “we have to move away from treating the sick to keeping people out of the hospital.”
The $7 million project has been a few years in the making, with the groundbreaking ceremony signaling yet another construction project for the aspiring rural hospital clinic in Del Norte.
Harms and her team recently opened a new $2 million clinic in South Fork which came on the heels of a clinic opening in Monte Vista. That Rio Grande Hospital Clinic, governed through the Valley Citizens Foundation for Healthcare, can continually raise private dollars to support its focus on healthy living is a remarkable achievement for a rural-based hospital.
“I believe that at the end of the day what will be successful for us is if we have a healthier community,” Harms said. “Because a healthier community is a more prosperous community, a healthy community has to spend less of their money on health dollars, and so we’re really excited.”
She also hopes the project will include six homes, not just the four currently on the drawing board. The homes will sit adjacent to the wellness center as accommodations for the families and patients of the Rio Grande Hospital Clinic.
Harms tells a story of a family recently traveling through the Valley that was involved in an accident near Del Norte which hospitalized the father. The mom and her four children were going to sleep in their car until the hospital stepped in to provide housing while the dad recovered.
That won’t be the case once the wellness center and its accompanying homes come on line. Families and patients who utilize the homes will find themselves connected to the wellness center and the belief that making connections to other people, moving naturally for exercise, eating wisely and having the right outlook are keys to a healthy life.
It’s the Del Norte way.