Infrastructure upgrades are under way at Newport Community Hospital, in Newport, Wash., to free up space to consolidate some of the hospital's functions and eventually open an outpatient clinic there, says the architect on the project.

The architect, Don Trail, of Spokane, says the hospital has awarded Precision Electric, of Coeur d'Alene, and Trademark Mechanical Inc., of Hayden Idaho, contracts totaling $114,000 to upgrade mechanical and electrical systems. That will allow the hospital to convert 3,750 square feet of storage space in its basement into space that will house some support services.

About 400 square feet of that space originally was designed as an operating room, and the project will enable the hospital to restore it to its intended use, Trail says.

Some of the basement space will be used to house the hospital's information technology department and related servers and electronic gear, and the purchasing department also will be moved there from another location, he says. The basement also will have a small classroom facility for meetings and instruction, he says.

Trail says he also is designing other components in the hospital's long-range plan, which includes moving hospital support services out of the 52-year-old original hospital building and into an adjacent 16-year-old addition. That plan also calls for the older building to house the outpatient clinic eventually.

Remodeling work for future planned space conversions would be done under another contract, Trail says.

Newport Community Hospital is a 24-bed, acute-care facility with a 24-hour emergency room. It also offers imaging services, physical and rehabilitative therapy, obstetric services, and general surgical care.

The hospital is operated by Pend Oreille Health District No. 1, which also operates a 50-bed skilled nursing facility and a 42-unit assisted-living center located in Newport.