TUBA CITY, Ariz –After 20 years, the Bodaway-Gap region of the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation will finally have their own health care center.
TCRHCC has scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday Feb. 16, 2024 for a new, twostory 123,565 feet health care facility. The health center is expected to be completed sometime in late fall 2025, or 18 months after the project commences.
When completed, the center will offer the following outpatient medical services:
- Dental clinic
- Eye clinic
- Wellness Center
- Navajo Nation programs: Community Health Representative; Women, Infant, and Children (WIC); Health Education; Special Diabetes; Behavioral Health; Communicable Diseases; and HIV Preventi
- Laboratory
- Podiatry/Specialty care
- Primary Care
- Mental Health
- Physical Therapy
- Pharmacy
- Other services
Bodaway/Gap is a very remote community between Page, Arizona and Tuba City. Residents have had to travel 35 miles for health care services to Tuba City. In 2018, TCRHCC established a limited-services, part-time clinic out of a mobile building.
The need for services started in 2002 when a request was made by the communities of Bodaway, Gap, and Kaibeto for a health facility. The Indian Health Services funded the initial planning and the Bodaway-Gap Steering Committee was then established as an IHS service project. At around the same time, Tuba City Hospital became a P.L. 638 health center and thus assumed the project because Bodaway-Gap was in the TCRHCC service area.
On December 1, 2023, the design team met with the TCRHCC Board of Directors, chapter officials from Bodaway Gap Chapter and Coppermine Chapter. “They liked the design and expressed their appreciation,” said Chief Operations Officer Julius Young. TCHCC Board of Directors then unanimously approved the design.
“This is a historic event for the surrounding communities,” said CEO Joette Walters. “And it all started with a vision to improve access to healthcare.”
“TCRHCC is excited for the opportunity to improve access to care for our communities,” Walters said. “Having lived remotely while growing up, there were many things that we often lived without but that should not be the case when it comes to our health and wellness. Our families deserve access to timely and quality care, and as a healthcare organization we are honored to fulfill that mission. We are grateful to have the support of the leaders of our local communities, the IHS and Navajo Nation to turn this vision into a reality.”
In the meantime, project planners are working on many other activities that are all related to the project, such as housing.
Further event information will be provided on the TCRHCC website at www.tchealth.org
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