It's National Health Care Week, and El Rio is set to open a new clinic on the southeast side. The grand opening takes place tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. Guest speakers will be Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a representative of Congressman Raul Grijalva and Kathy Byrne, El Rio executive director. The new clinic has 54 photovoltaic panels that will provide about 5 percent of the building's annual energy cost.

Here's more information from their press release:

The building will be among the first community health center facilities in the United States designed in response to the emerging philosophy of patient driven centered care. The Southeast Clinic will offer patients and staff the latest in high performance community health center concepts: open patient access, electronic medical records, group examination, digital imaging, and staff team access.

El Rio was established in 1970 and currently serves over 74,000 patients annually. The organization has grown to a team of 700-plus employees at 16 clinic sites and is ranked the 14th largest community health center in the country.

The new Southeast clinic will provide a full compliment of core medical services. Care will be delivered by five medical providers with appropriate office support. Onsite services will also include pharmacy, radiology, laboratory, behavioral health care and patient advocacy. The new clinic will provide a health care home to approximately 7,500-8,000 patients, many of whom are low income and may have barriers to care. It is anticipated that the new site could offer as many as 19,245 medical visits per year.