Napa Valley’s Up Valley communities are known for picturesque landscapes and historic charm. Here, despite the boom and growth of surrounding regions, an unpretentious, small-town atmosphere pervades, offering a glimpse into the wine country of old. With its rural feel and strong local economy, Up Valley thrives with an abundance of riches, well-illustrated by natural beauty, open space, and a tight-knit community. Yet despite these riches, the community lacks an important element: there are simply not enough primary care options to meet the population’s needs. CommuniCare+OLE is committed to changing this.
For more than 50 years, CommuniCare+OLE has provided vital care to the essential workers and residents that power Napa Valley. The non-profit organization’s mission is to build stronger communities by ensuring high-quality, comprehensive, personalized care and removing barriers to that care, such as cost and access.
CommuniCare+OLE provides medical care, dental care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, and nutrition and wellness education. Its health centers are found across Napa County, including in St. Helena and Calistoga, where a rented clinic space and an aging small modular serve as medical ground zero for roughly 60% of the local population, from infants to the elderly. CommuniCare+OLE is one of only three Up Valley dental practices and the only primary care provider not a concierge doctor. CommuniCare+OLE’s dedicated professionals do the best they can within varied constraints. With space for only one medical provider to work at a time, for instance, there is little room to provide the care required today, and the demand for expansion is real.
“Our biggest challenge right now is that we just don’t have room for patients,” said CommuniCare+OLE CEO Alicia Hardy. “With a small, rented clinic in St. Helena and a 40-year-old double-wide modular in Calistoga, we are long overdue to provide a state-of-the-art facility for our patients and our dedicated staff. We know if we build this facility, we can provide care for every member of this community. This project also helps meet two of the identified priorities in the Napa County 2023 Community Health Needs Assessment: access to health services and behavioral health.”
CommuniCare+OLE family physician Dr. Gabriela Bermudez has been caring for this community for nearly 20 years. She has seen providers retire and leave the area, increasing the demand for services at OLE Health’s sites. “OLE Health is often the only clinic people can visit,” said Dr. Bermudez. “We attempt to assist our patients as much as possible in a single visit, but we have to do it piecemeal because of the space. When we have a new facility, we will have all-encompassing care in one location, which will help us better serve the community.”
Nearly a decade in the making, the planned 11,000-square-foot Up Valley Campus will address the critical community need for primary care access north of the Napa city limits. Located on a parcel at the east end of Lincoln Avenue in Calistoga, purchased by OLE Health in 2023, the new health center will feature nine exam rooms, five dental chairs, dedicated space for in-person behavioral health services, as well as lab and pharmacy services for everyone who lives and works in the Napa County’s Up Valley communities, regardless of insurance or ability to pay.
Rick Jones raises his paddle at the Vida OLE Health Foundation Auction to pledge $500,000
Funding for the project is primarily from private donations secured through the OLE Health Foundation’s Up Valley Capital Campaign, co-chaired by Foundation board members Naoko Dalla Valle and Pete Richmond, with Rick Jones serving as Honorary Chair. The OLE Health Foundation was founded by vintner John Shafer in 1986 to ensure a more stable financial future for the organization. Since then, it has been supported and championed by vintners and business owners across the Valley who understand how vital access to health care is for our entire community. The Foundation’s annual signature event, Vida OLE!, raised nearly half the required $8M this past summer. The Foundation seeks to raise the additional half through community donations.
Naoko Dalla Valle speaks at Vida OLE Health Foundation and pledges $500,000
“This is an urgent need,” said Rick Jones, OLE Health Foundation treasurer and capital campaign Honorary Chair. “Our Up Valley communities are currently under-resourced in terms of medical professionals and facilities. We need to take care of the people who are the backbone of our community, whether it be those in the vineyards and the wineries, the staff in our restaurants that we all enjoy, or the hotel employees; they all need to feel that this is a community that supports them. I am excited about the vision for the new facility.”
Added Sonia Tolbert, Chief Development Officer for CommuniCare+OLE, “If you have enjoyed a meal in a Napa restaurant, stayed at a Napa hotel, or had a glass of Napa wine, you have benefitted from OLE Health’s services.”
