Sunset Health set to open new Somerton clinic after delays

More Somerton families are about to get care closer to home, with Sunset Health preparing to open a much larger clinic on West Main Street behind Somerton High School after state permitting delays slowed the project. The new site, at 1362 W. Main Street, replaces a smaller downtown location and is built to expand access to primary care, dental work, behavioral health and pharmacy services in southern Yuma County.

The new clinic sits on a 5-acre site and is roughly 27,500 to 27,564 square feet, a major jump from Sunset Health’s 8,100-square-foot building in downtown Somerton. Project partners have described it as a $20.9 million outpatient facility designed as a federally qualified health center, with drive-thru pharmacy access, a community-use room and space for outreach and after-hours meetings. Sunset Health also says the building will support extended pharmacy hours.

For local families, the change is about more than a bigger building. The new clinic is set to bring pediatrics, family and internal medicine, dentistry, behavioral health, pharmacy services, chronic disease education and patient enrollment and eligibility assistance into one site. That broader mix matters in a city where residents have had to piece together care across different locations and wait longer for appointments in a clinic that had outgrown its footprint.

Sunset Health says it now serves nearly 30,000 patients across 17 clinics and entry points in Yuma County, with more than 300 professionals, including 35 providers. The Somerton project had been projected to finish in 14 to 18 months when construction began with a groundbreaking on June 20, 2024, and doors were originally expected to open in fall 2025. Permitting delays pushed that timeline back, stretching the wait for a facility intended to handle more patients and more services in one place.

The organization’s local history reaches back to 1972, when it first received Public Health Service grant funding for the Yuma County Migrant Health Program. It began operating as Valley Health Center in 1976 and became Sunset Community Health Center in 1997. Somerton City Manager Louie Galaviz called the clinic the first development in that part of the city, tying it to the town’s broader growth.