HARLINGEN — They’ve got top of the line gym equipment, Zumba classes, pool tables, a computer room, a movie room, and a clinic specializing in the health needs of those over age 60.
The new WellMed at Central Park and the Harlingen Senior Activity Center held their grand opening Wednesday to great fanfare, with hundreds of visitors joining in the festivities.
“It’s awesome,” said Oscar Lopez, 70. “It brings a lot of people in.”
The clinic offers an on-site lab, procedure room and wheelchair accessibility to those over 60; the activity center features a nutrition program, fitness instructor and an almost endless array of other activities.
WellMed’s mission is to not only to help sick patients recover but also help them prevent illness or manage chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, said Dr. Guadalupe Davila, medical director for all 13 WellMed clinics throughout the Valley.
“The senior center is supported by the WellMed Charitable Foundation and it’s a very unique place that serves the whole community, not only WellMed patients but any senior,” Davila said. “There are a lot of educational programs, recreational and social programs as well as fitness programs.”
Heavy disco music throbbed from amplifiers as several hundred attendees moved through the facility. It had actually opened in February, but many were seeing it for the first time. Two gentlemen played pool across the aisle from a line of brand-new stationary bikes. In a nearby room, a group of excited women in red shirts danced to a lively beat. Many stopped at a table where a woman gave them tips on good eating habits.
Alma Trevino, 69, has been coming to the previous facility since 2013. She loves the new building.
“This one’s amazing,” she said. “This is wonderful. I like line dancing, I like Zumba, I like …”
Dr. Poonam Gogia, lead physician at WellMed Central Park, said there is a need for this kind of care because of a discernible increase in the Valley’s geriatric population in recent years.
“What we do at WellMed is a very strong focus on geriatric patient care,” Gogia said. “Their medical issues are unique. Once patients are above 65 there are significant changes in the body. It requires a special kind of experience to take care of these patients, a special kind of knowledge which at WellMed we are very experienced to do.”
Such chronic conditions that befall the geriatric population may limit their ability to leave their homes, Gogia said. They may have other issues such as being unable to take their medication or get food.
“We provide assessment to identify their needs and address them to make their medical care more comprehensive,” she said.
That care may even include some home visits.
“We do provide patient-centered medical home services,” Gogia said. “And also patients who are not able to come to the clinic or if they require some IV hydrations, IV antibiotics, any of those services, maybe they are acutely ill and they don’t want to be in the hospital, we are able to provide all these services through our home in services as well as clinicians who may go home and take care of these patients.”
