Providence ElderPlace, a care system for the elderly, has opened its first Spokane-area PACE health and social services care clinic.

The Spokane office for PACE, short for Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, is located at 6018 N. Astor, just northeast of Providence Holy Family Hospital.

Oscar Haupt, Providence ElderPlace’s site manager here, says the program is designed to accommodate those 55 and over who have been deemed eligible to receive nursing home care yet want to keep living in their private residences.

In Portland, the PACE program serves 1,700 people through full medical staffs at nine clinics. In Seattle, PACE has 930 residents enrolled, with staff members providing care out of five locations, Haupt says.

Here, PACE enrolled its first three participants in the program starting June 1. Haupt says the current staff of a little more than a dozen people expects to enroll eight to 10 more people on July 1.

“We’re hoping to have at least 120 people enrolled by the end of the year,” Haupt says of the service, which is available to participants around the clock.

Those enrolled receive primary and specialty medical care, nursing care, occupational, physical, and speech therapies, access to social workers, family and caregiver support, in-home personal care services, and prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, he says.

Providence officials hope to continue adding enrollment in future years, with a goal of expanding coverage to serve more vulnerable, low-income seniors.

“Our program is growing to meet additional needs in Spokane County,” executive director of Providence ElderPlace Susan Tuller says in a press release.

“The power of Providence ElderPlace is that we’re able to stabilize our vulnerable senior population and keep them healthy in the community, which is where they want to be,” she says.

Eligible individuals must be in need of assistance with activities of daily living as determined by the state of Washington and be able to live independently in the community, according to Haupt.

PACE receives its funding through Medicaid and Medicare, which pay for all medical coverage, including hospitalizations, for its enrollees.