Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital helps with COVID crisis

POST FALLS — A post-COVID patient released after 27 days of acute treatment at Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital got the royal treatment on Friday.

NIACH staff members lined the hallway leading to the front door and cheered as the woman was wheeled out.

This “clapping out” is a signature of the tightly knit team that treats the most vulnerable of patients with an high level of success.

“It’s a big deal,” said Rachel Vangelder, a clinical liaison and licensed practical nurse at the hospital for the past four years. “Because we see really, really sick patients.”

The long-term, acute care facility is nationally certified by the Joint Commission in Respiratory Failure. It is the first and only hospital in Idaho with that certification, said CEO Shane Sanborn.

“We’re actually the only hospital of our type within 300 miles,” said Sanborn. “Our wheelhouse is taking those critical care patients from those in critical care units at the larger hospitals like Kootenai Health, Sacred Heart and Holy Family. We go as far east as the western part of Montana, as far west as Seattle, as far south as Denver, Colorado and as far north as the border.”

Their specialty is in treating the ventilated patient and weaning the patient off the ventilator, Sanborn said.

With an 80% success rate of discharging COVID patients, NIACH has treated about 300 since the pandemic broke. Sanborn said the national average is about 56%.

With 40 beds, the hospital treats those who need extended care beyond stabilization at a short-term facility. Vangelder classifies them as high-acuity patients and said they treat more than just respiratory issues.

NIACH has had beds available to treat COVID patients but the general public doesn’t seem to know about the services provided there, Vangelder said.

NIACH patients need to be referred by a physician but often family members will call directly and say they’d like their loved ones to receive care at the facility.

Vangelder’s role is to visit patients and see if treatment at NIACH is suitable for their situation.

Before COVID, Vangelder said she was regularly accessing patients in other hospitals for possible transfer and treatment at NIACH. When COVID closed down most facilities to outsiders, the process changed. It became necessary to do assessments remotely, which isn’t an ideal approach, Vangelder said.

“Really, we’re trying to be that squeaky wheel for that patient to move on to our care or to the care that’s most appropriate for them," she said.

Vangelder said NIACH’s community-like environment is part of their approach and they provide physical, occupational and speech therapy in a state-of-the-art facility.

Most of NIAC’S patients spend about 25 days in treatment, Sanborn said.

Despite the challenges of COVID, the NIAC team is pressing onward with optimism.

“We’ve had to be flexible and adjust and try to get people to work with us," Vangelder said. "Yesterday I went down to the Tri-Cities to evaluate a patient. — having those conversations with the hospitals about coming in because we’re there to do what is best for the patient.”

Vangelder said a face-to-face assessment is best.

“And then while we’re there we can educate people on exactly what we do, how we’re going to transport a patient, (going over) insurance guidelines,” Vangelder said. “It’s an all-encompassing thing.”

Being specialized in respiratory failure has served NIAC well in light of COVID-19.

“Being able to help off-load other facilities with recovering COVID patients, we’ve played a good part in that,” Sanborn said. “Especially this last wave."

She said NIACH can be considered an extension of the critical care unit at a larger hospital.

“We’re just able to see the patient for a longer period of time. It affords us the ability to form relationships with the patient and the family member," she said. "We get to know their kids and their grandkids. It’s really neat to get to make those connections and to touch their lives in that way.”