GANADO – Desert stretches out around the little town of Ganado, which sits in the western part of the 27,000 square miles of the Navajo Nation.

Ganado is home to Sage Memorial Hospital, a Native-managed comprehensive health care system serving thousands of people in surrounding Navajo communities. The medical facility has operated out of its current facilities since 1930. Back then, the outpatient building, Poncel Hall, was home to the first Native American nursing school.

Now, 93 years later, Sage Memorial Hospital has built a 95,614-square-foot state-of-the-art hospital that is more than twice the size of the original hospital and will significantly increase patient capacity.

This ambitious endeavor aspires to provide better, more advanced health care to the Navajo Nation, but equally important is Sage Memorial’s mission to incorporate and honor the traditions of the Diné, the name that Navajo people use for themselves.

The hospital’s core values have been kept in the Diné language: bee łá’í ‘dlį, meaning togetherness and unity; hodílzin, meaning sacred; hózhó, meaning beauty and balance; and ił’ílį, meaning respect.

Navajo Health Foundation – Sage Memorial Hospital is a private nonprofit corporation governed by an all-Navajo board of directors. The new facility is entirely self-funded by Sage Memorial Hospital and is slated to open this fall.

Melinda White, the hospital’s CEO, anticipates enormous benefits to the Navajo community.

“We want to be the best rural health facility,” White said. “The space we’re currently at is very tight, and we’re not able to see as many patients as we would like. And in the new building, because there’s a lot more space, we’re able to have a higher patient volume.”