Kootenai Medical Center, in Coeur dAlene, projects in its recently completed master campus plan that it will spend as much as $260 million over the next 20 years to expand and renovate its facilities, although that figure is on the high end of its estimated costs.


The projects in the plan include a new $12 million support-services building; demolition of KMCs original building and construction of a much bigger facility for hospital expansion at a cost of up to $150 million; $18 million in buildings to house medical offices and clinical departments; two new parking garages at a cost of $18.5 million; and possible construction of $60 million worth of even more buildings for clinical space and physicians offices.


The master plan focuses on creating a consistent theme in the 36-acre campuss appearance, consolidating its services, and making access easier for patients, says Lisa Johnson, KMCs community relations director.


Last year, KMC hired Seattle-based Mithun Inc., which provides master campus planning for health-care facilities, to draw up a master plan that would guide hospital officials as they evaluate future development. Mithun completed the plan in February, and the hospitals board of directors currently is reviewing it, Johnson says. The board is expected to decide whether to approve the plans first stage of development in a couple of months, Johnson says.


That first phase, which KMC hopes to complete by 2008, is expected to include construction of a three-story support-services structure just north of the main hospital building, which is located at 2003 Lincoln Way, Johnson says. The support-services building would accommodate KMCs business and accounting offices, as well as other departments that currently operate at off-site locations, she says.


Mithun likely will be the architect for the project, but KMC hasnt selected a contractor yet, she says. The medical center probably will choose a contractor in time to start construction on the building this fall, and the work is expected to be completed by the end of 2007, she says.


The first stage of development also is expected to include roughly $1.2 million worth of landscaping work around the hospital, she says. As part of that work, which KMC hopes to start this summer, the hospital plans to construct a new road that would stretch to the northwest from Ironwood Drive along the eastern and northern perimeter of campus to Ironwood Center Drive, she says.


The second phase of development in the plan, which KMC hopes to complete by 2016, would involve razing the hospitals original, one-level brick building and replacing it with a multistory structure that would provide space for expansion of the hospital itself, Johnson says. KMC, which is located in a multistory building not far from its old structure, no longer uses the one-story building to meet its own space needs.


The size of the planned new building isnt known yet, and the master campus plan includes a wide estimate range on its potential cost, saying the big addition could run from $60 million to $150 million to build. We went up to the top of what it could be in the estimates, Johnson says. The master plan says the structure could be built in phases.


The services that operate currently in the hospitals old, one-story building include North Idaho Behavioral Health, which specializes in psychiatric and chemical dependency treatment, and Kootenai Rehabilitation Center, which offers in-patient rehabilitation services such as physical therapy. KMC currently is remodeling the space used by Kootenai Rehabilitation Center, which is part of the hospital, at a cost of about $740,000. Even though the building eventually will be torn down, the hospital believed it had to remodel that space because its needs adequate facilities to provide care until the second phase of work begins, she says.


Other projects planned for the second phase include $18 million in new buildings that would have space for medical offices and clinical departments, Johnson says. In addition, the master plan calls for an $8.5 million parking garage to be built during that stage of development.


Projects outlined in the third phase, which would be done by 2026, include additional clinical space and physicians office buildings at a cost of up to $60 million and a new $10 million parking garage, she says. Those plans are preliminary, though, because they will be driven largely by demand over the next 10 to 20 years, Johnson says.


KMC still is working on a new strategy to cover expansion in the next five years, and expects to complete that plan later this year, Johnson says. Unlike the master plan, that expansion strategy will concentrate on nearer-term projects specifically related to clinical needs that result from rising patient volumes, she says. For instance, a five-year plan that the hospital initiated in 2000 and recently completed included upgrades to patient rooms and an expansion of the emergency room.


KMCs unaudited revenues in 2005 were roughly $172.6 million, Johnson says. The institution is a 246-bed, publicly-owned nonprofit hospital that employs 1,600.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at [email protected].