Northwest Specialty Hospital, of Post Falls, has opened an urgent care clinic, says Vaughn Ward, the hospital's CEO.

The clinic, called Premier Urgent Care, occupies 5,700 square feet of floor space in the first floor of a medical office building just to the west of Northwest Specialty Hospital, at 1593 E. Polston.

The center has a separate staff of 12 employees, including five physicians, and is open every day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to treat walk-in patients for minor injuries and illnesses, Ward says.

Northwest Specialty Hospital, a for-profit surgical facility, is owned by 30 physicians and employs more than 125 people, Ward says. It opened in 2003 and has 34 beds. The same physician group owns the 44,000-square-foot adjacent office building.

"We have a head-to-toe approach," Ward says of Northwest Specialty Hospital's services. "We do everything from neurosurgery to podiatry."

Ward says the hospital is looking to add services and hopes to open another urgent-care facility in north Coeur d'Alene, possibly later this year.

The Premier Urgent Care space formerly was occupied by a North Idaho Immediate Care clinic.

North Idaho Immediate Care last year combined operations with After Hours Urgent Care clinics to become Kootenai Urgent Care, which now operates its Post Falls clinic in the KMC Health Park, at 1300 E. Mullan.