Coeur d’Alene-based Kootenai Health has launched a $45 million second phase of expansion on the heels of the recently completed $57 million first phase of a master plan for its flagship hospital.

The North Idaho regional health care network also has obtained a building permit for $3 million in interior work at its ongoing Kootenai Clinic expansion at its Post Falls campus.

In Coeur d’Alene, the two largest components of the current work will include expanding the surgery department and the emergency department at the main hospital, says Derek Miller, Kootenai Health’s facility planning director. The hospital is located at 2003 Kootenai Health Way near the northwest corner of U.S. 95 and Ironwood Drive.

The $24 million surgery department project site will be on the north end of the second floor of the main hospital in space that had been vacated by the labor-and-delivery unit, which moved into the recently completed 100,000-square-foot east expansion of the hospital.

“The (phase I) east expansion made room to accommodate the new surgery department in phase II,” he says.

When complete, the surgery department will have 11 operating rooms, up from eight.

The post-anesthesia care unit will have 18 beds, up from six.

“The surgery department will have a much larger surgical reception and waiting area,” Miller adds.

The expansion will be constructed in four stages so operating rooms will remain functional for the duration of the project.

The surgery expansion is scheduled to be completed by summer of 2018.

The $15 million emergency department expansion will be on the south side of the main floor of the hospital.

The project will extend the department by an additional 6,000 square feet, enabling Kootenai Health to add two trauma rooms for a total of four, and 11 treatment rooms for a total of 36, Miller says.

“We’re doing something in a big way,” he says.

The emergency department, which Kootenai Health claims is the busiest in Idaho, was built in 1983 to accommodate up to 32,000 patient visits annually and has been operating beyond its intended capacity for a number of years.

“In the last couple of years, there’s been well over 50,000 patients per year,” Miller says. 

Kootenai Health worked with a Seattle consultant and more than 50 staff members to design a facility and system to move patients more timely through the emergency department, Miller says.

“We’re going to triage folks immediately,” he says. “The patient component is driving all decisions.”

The department will have a traditional lobby and a results-waiting lobby, which will help keep emergency department beds free for patients who need them.

“If you just need bloodwork, we’ll do the test and take you to the results-waiting lobby,” he says.

The expanded emergency department also will have a new and separate entry for ambulances that will accommodate more vehicles than the hospital’s current small ambulance garage.

Miller says the exterior finishes will feature multicolored panels and prairie stone to match the east expansion.

Two other projects will reconfigure 6,000 square feet of underutilized hallway and storage space to expand the hospital’s pharmacy and its central supply and sterile processing department.

“Surgery uses lots of instruments,” he says. “We have to have a place to clean the equipment and get ready for the next surgery.”

Miller says the pharmacy and CSSP department expansions, which are expected to total $6 million, currently are in the design phase.

“We’re expecting to do something internally in the summer of next year,” he says.

Spokane-based Bouten Construction Co. is the general contractor/construction manager for both expansion phases, and Spokane-based NAC Architecture designed them.

Miller says Kootenai Health estimates the expansion will lead to 100 to 150 new staff positions.

“Those will get phased in,” he says. “When we add onto surgery capacity, a whole host of other departments will need to increase staff.”

Kootenai Health has a total of 2,115 full-time equivalent employees, with 500 physicians and 700 nurses on staff. The hospital has an annual budget of $423 million.

Kootenai Health also estimates the second phase will generate 500 to 600 construction jobs with a combined payroll of $10 million to $12 million throughout the duration of the projects.

The third phase of the master plan will involve finishing the third floor of the phase I addition and adding 32 patient beds. No timeline has been set for that work, however.

The master plan projects are funded through cash reserves, debt, and community donations to the Kootenai Health Foundation.

At its Post Falls campus, Kootenai Health has started work on interior improvements at its ongoing Kootenai Clinic expansion, at 1300 E. Mullan.

While the permit is for $3 million, the total value of the two-story, 22,000-square-foot expansion project is $10.5 million.

“We had to break it into two separate projects,” Miller says. “The first permit was for the shell and core. The second permit is for developing all of the suites within the shell.”

The interior will be completed in stages, with the first stage including a coffee service and a lobby.

Three Kootenai Health-affiliated practices, Kootenai Family Medicine, Kootenai Heart Clinics Northwest, and Kootenai OB-GYN, will move onto the second floor from other locations on the Kootenai Clinic health campus.

“We’re in the process of framing the second floor,” Miller says. “We think it will give us space to grow primary care over the next couple of years. Post Falls is the fastest-growing community in our area, and we want to accommodate that growth.” 

Much of the first floor of the expansion will remain vacant for now, Miller says.

“That will allow us to develop more programs in Post Falls,” he says. “We’re entertaining a whole host of notions about what kinds of practices are going to go on the first floor.”

Kootenai Health has said it expects the expansion will lead to 20 permanent new Kootenai Health positions.

Miller adds that a large portion of the space will be leased to other businesses.

“We really can’t nail down how many folks are going to be hired in outside entities,” he says.

Bouten Construction also is the general contractor/construction manager on the Post Falls project, which is scheduled to be completed in December, and NAC Architecture designed it. 

Kootenai Health is operated by Kootenai Hospital District, which was formed in 1956. 

Although the hospital district is a taxing entity, it hasn’t levied property taxes since 1995.