Site work is now underway on a 4,100-square-foot primary care clinic in Reardan, Washington, and the $2.3 million facility is expected to open by Oct. 31, says Tyson Lacy, CEO of Lincoln County Public Hospital District No. 3, which does business as Lincoln Hospital & Clinics.

The new clinic will replace a smaller existing facility, which will be torn down and replaced with a parking area. The project has been envisioned for over five years Lacy says, and it will bring more health care jobs to the Reardan facility.

Spokane Valley based Blue Room Architecture & Design PS is serving as the project architect. Blue Room also served as the architect for a Davenport, Washington, clinic built in 2021, which is also part of Lincoln Hospital & Clinics.

Halme Cascade General Contracting Co., of Medical Lake, is the lead contractor for the project.

Tim O'Connell, chief financial officer at Lincoln Hospital & Clinics, says there were a few obstacles during the planning phase that made hospital leadership reevaluate the Reardan project.

"We initially bought three parcels of land behind the current clinic with plans to build the new facility on those," O'Connell says. "However, there is still an active city alleyway and utility poles right there, so building and developing around that would have been difficult. Fortunately, we got the adjacent lot and were able to build right there without issue."

Lincoln Hospital & Clinics is funding the project out of pocket so no debt will be accrued, says O'Connell.

Lincoln County allowed the merging of the clinic's existing lot and the new adjacent lot, so the facility will keep the same street address, 550 E. Broadway, Lacy says.

The goal of Lincoln Hospital & Clinics is to bring modern facilities to rural communities, he notes.

"Just like in many parts of rural America, infrastructure is aging," Lacy says. "It's important to modernize our health services to continue effectively serving these communities."

Lacy explains that the current Reardan Clinic was previously relocated from Colville in 2006. The space worked well for the organization initially, he says, but as new equipment and technology were added, much of the open floor space was consumed.

"It's not set up well for our current workflow," Lacy says. "As we keep adding new devices, it makes each room smaller and less private. We need to serve our residents in a clean, modern, comfortable, and efficient space." 

There will be six exam rooms in the new building, and Lacy says that's up from four rooms in the current facility.

Having the extra space and rooms will allow the clinic to eventually bring in a second primary care provider, doubling the patient volume the Reardan clinic currently serves, says O'Connell.

The clinic will serve patients from Lincoln County and nearby communities on the West Plains, including Medical Lake, where a previous clinic closure led to an increase in patients at the Reardan clinic, he says.

Looking forward, Lacy says Lincoln Hospital & Clinics will be regrouping to identify its next major project. Lincoln Hospital & Clinics is discussing future plans for the neighboring town of Wilbur, in Lincoln County, Lacy says, which also has a small and aging clinic.