Following a $10 million bond approval in April 2016, Pend Oreille County Public Hospital District No. 1, which operates Newport Hospital & Health Services, has begun laying concrete for its new $11.1 million River Mountain Village Advanced Care assisted-living facility, says Jenny Smith, spokeswoman for NHHS.

To be located at 507 W. First, near Newport’s central business district and about 50 miles north of Spokane, the two-story facility will include 54 beds and occupy about 54,000 square feet of space, says Smith.

The facility, which will be a couple of blocks southeast of the hospital, will include group dining and leisure areas, patio and balcony access, private bathrooms, and an 18-bed memory care unit, she says.

Depending on demand, the district will look to add another 18 beds in the future, she says.

Construction is expected to be completed in the summer of 2019, she says. Kilgore Construction Inc., of Colbert, is the contractor, and ZBA Architecture PS, of Spokane, is the architect.

The facility will be geared toward “the frailest of our community. People who need help getting out of bed, toileting, showering. They need help with all daily needs,” she says.

It also will be adjacent to the hospital district’s existing River Mountain Village, an assisted-living facility for people who need basic daily care assistance, such as showering or help with laundry, says Smith.

“It’s nice that we’ll have the two facilities right next to each other, especially if we have a husband in one and a wife in the other,” she says. “They’re going to be literally connected by grass.”

NHHS currently houses long-term care patients in a nursing home-like setting in a wing of its hospital at 714 W. Pine. Although the hospital wing is “squeaky clean,” Smith says, many patients use the same bathroom and don’t have much room, a situation which isn’t ideal for the type of care people want.

NHHS is a critical access hospital that has 24 licensed beds, 18 physicians, and 70 nurses on staff, according to the Journal’s most recent list of hospitals and medical centers.