Rockwood Clinic PS, the Spokane-based multispecialty medical care provider, says it's planning a $1.2 million remodeling project on the eighth floor of the Deaconess Health & Education Center, where it plans to move its heart clinic.

The clinic, Rockwood Heart Center, plans to move into the building at 910 W. Fifth, near Deaconess Medical Center, in about four months, says Jill Fix, a spokeswoman for Rockwood. The move will involve five physicians, one physician's assistant, three nurse practitioners, and a support staff of 11 employees, Fix says.

Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, is the contractor on the remodeling project, and Nashville, Tenn.-based architectural firm Earl Swensson Associates Inc. designed it.

Plans on file with the city of Spokane show the clinic will have 18 exam rooms, five echocardiogram rooms, a nuclear medicine area, 17 office spaces, and other amenities in about 13,500 square feet of floor space.

The Rockwood Heart Center identifies, diagnoses, and treats heart disease and cardiovascular problems through therapeutic procedures that include ultrasound studies, angioplasty, stent placement, and implanting pacemakers and defibrillators, its Web site says.

Since June, the Rockwood Heart Center has been located in the former Group Health building, at 3104 S. Regal. Prior to that, it had been located in the Heart Institute of Spokane building, at 122 W. Seventh.

The Heart Center and seven other of Rockwood's 22 specialty clinics relocated to temporary quarters last spring after Providence Health Care canceled their leases. Providence took that action after Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Inc. (CHS), a competitor, acquired Rockwood, Fix says. The Heart Center will be the first of those clinics to relocate to permanent quarters, Fix says.

CHS also owns and operates Deaconess Medical Center here and Valley Hospital & Medical Center, in Spokane Valley, both of which it acquired when it bought the assets of Spokane-based Empire Health Services in 2008.