There’s nowhere quite like Bella Health + Wellness.
Most medical clinics don’t have a national reputation. Most don’t have people around the world asking for a location near them.
But Bella Health + Wellness (“Bella”) is different.
How to explain the difference?
Start with walking into the flagship Bella Clinic in Englewood, Colorado. It’s a warm, inviting space with soft light, real wood accents, and beautiful art.
Off the main lobby there’s a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament present. The team starts each day with prayer, and when you come to the clinic, you can stop in for a visit to Jesus.
Enter a room for your patient visit, and you get a cozy robe instead of a scratchy hospital gown.
When your medical provider comes in, you can expect a thoughtful and personal visit — a conversation that gets to root causes and considers your whole-person health.
Each of these little shifts adds up to something completely different than the typical experience of health care.
Catholic mother and daughter nurse practitioners, Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett, founded Bella to offer health care that puts human dignity at the forefront. At Bella, health care is Christ-centered, life-affirming, and deeply healing to the soul as well as the body.
And not surprisingly, patients can’t get enough.
Requests from around the U.S.
Bella has grown rapidly since its opening in 2014, largely thanks to its enthusiastic patients. And not surprisingly, patients don’t want to leave it behind when they move away from Colorado.
So Bella is beginning plans to expand. Their second location will open in Bismarck, North Dakota, in January 2026, with the encouragement of local Bishop Kagan. That clinic will focus on family medicine, with plans to expand into other areas over time.
Meanwhile a former Bella patient in Illinois’ Joliet Diocese reached out with a prayerful and heartfelt request: Would Bella consider coming to Chicago’s western suburbs?
“Little did she know that our leadership team was praying over expanding but didn’t know where to go,” said Justin Sinnett, Bella’s Chief Expansion Officer. Like the North Dakota location, the initial focus would be on family medicine.
With a warm invitation from local Bishop Hicks, Bella began exploring opening a location in the Chicago area.
Support needed for Chicago-area expansion
While it’s not a certain thing yet, there’s growing excitement in the Joliet Diocese.
It’s not just patients who love the Bella approach. Many medical professionals also long to provide this kind of care.
Several Chicago-area medical providers shared with Aleteia their hope for a Bella clinic to open there:
Physician assistant Elizabeth Bauer said:
As a medical practitioner working in Christian healthcare for 15 years, I truly hope Bella Health + Wellness comes to our diocese. Their life-affirming, faith-filled approach to medicine would bring such hope and healing to families who long for care rooted in the dignity of every person. It would be a beautiful witness to what Catholic healthcare can be.
Amanda Isbell, RN, explained:
I lived in Colorado when the Bella Clinic was started there, and immediately thought “What a dream it would be to work there!” Now, about a decade later, we have a great team of people working together to bring this great blessing to the Chicago suburbs.
Can you imagine having a healthcare facility where you can receive care for yourself and your family, and where you can actually feel that Jesus is truly and intentionally at the center of the practice and in the hearts of the people who work there?
Bella would be a dream come true for many patients and medical providers.
The hold-up? Bella is a nonprofit organization: Prayer and extensive community support of donations are needed to make a Chicago-area location a reality.
The desire is there, and many prayers are supporting it. The people of the Joliet diocese are ready to experience the Bella difference.
If you believe in the Bella mission, donate here to help more people benefit from whole-person, Christ-centered medical care.
