By HFT Staff

Kootenai Health and MultiCare Health System announced the development of a new multi-phase, 30-acre medical campus in Post Falls at the south-east corner of Highway 41 and Prairie Avenue. The new location, named the Prairie Medical Campus, represents one of the largest recent medical investments in northern Idaho. It will help ensure access to healthcare as the region continues to grow. 

Phase one will include a micro-hospital with an emergency department, imaging services and rooms for overnight patient stays. It will also include a large multi-story medical office building that will initially be home to a new ambulatory surgery center, clinic offices, lab services and more to come. 

The micro-hospital will include a 12-room emergency department staffed with physicians who are board-certified in emergency medicine. A number of the rooms will accommodate patients that need overnight hospital care. It will also be home to an advanced imaging center with state-of-the-art equipment, including MRI, CT scanners, ultrasound machines and X-ray machines. 

The medical office building will include space for new and expanded physician practices that will include both Kootenai Clinic and independent physicians. It will help attract new, needed primary care providers, medical and surgical specialists to the region. It will provide needed space for many practices to grow and is expected to become a destination for patients to receive care from a variety of providers. 

Development on phase one is scheduled to begin in 2025, with an anticipated 24 to 36-month timeline for completing projects in this phase. Parkwood Business Properties, a northern Idaho based commercial real estate company, will be working alongside Kootenai Health and MultiCare Health System as the development partner. 

The Prairie Medical Campus has space to accommodate future phases, including the planned development of an expanded, full-service hospital, as the region’s population continues to grow. 

This is a joint venture, not a merger or acquisition. While working collaboratively, both Kootenai Health and MultiCare Health System will remain independent, non-profit, community-based healthcare providers. Kootenai Health will maintain operational control as the managing partner of the Prairie Medical Campus as well as primary branding. This will continue their long history of high-quality care and dedication to the health of northern Idaho. 

The medical campus will be the latest collaboration between Kootenai Health and MultiCare. In 2020 Kootenai Health partnered with MultiCare on the implementation of the Epic electronic health record. Since that time, the two have collaborated on other initiatives including two Indigo urgent care locations in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden. Collaboration at this scale, between two large health systems, is an approach that allows an accelerated timeline so more services can be delivered sooner.