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SPIRIT LAKE – Mountain Springs Assisted Living Center in Spirit Lake opened a hospice wing last month.
The hospice is on the east side of the center and has eight single rooms, four of which are vacant as of Jan. 22. The hospice focuses on people with 30 days or less left to live or terminal conditions but welcomes residents of all life expectancies.
One resident in hospice who had only 30 days left to live ended up living for over a year, said Timothy Fox, a medical technician, administrator and care team member.
“We’re just helping and caring for them at the end when their families are struggling, when they can’t take care of them anymore,” Fox said.
Located at 3254 Spirit Lake Cutoff Rd., Mountain Springs has trained staff who communicate regularly with the residents’ loved ones.
“We just wanted to create a nice healthy environment where they can feel at home,” Fox said.
Nancy Kirschbaum, 87, and her husband Loren “Tuffy” Sitton, 92, have been residents at Mountain Springs for two months.
They have lived in the area since the 1960s, moving back and forth between Newport, Priest River and other cities nearby. Kirschbaum is from Minnesota, and Sitton was born in Bonners Ferry and raised in Newport. The married couple moved west on their honeymoon.
Before Mountain Springs, Kirschbaum and Sitton’s granddaughter and son took care of them for a while. But they also had their own families.
“This was a good alternative was to come here, live here,” Kirschbaum said.
The hospice is phase two of a three-phase project that began when Mountain Springs opened in April 2023.
Phase one was a remodel of the center, which features both single and double rooms and a capacity of 16 residents. Rates for these rooms range from $4,000 to $6,500 a month depending on the resident’s level of care.
Phase two includes the hospice and a memory care wing. Currently, the rate for a room in hospice is $4,000 to $6,000 a month, also depending on the resident’s level of care. The memory care unit will replace the hospice on the east side of the center when it is built. The hospice will move to a new wing on the west side. Plans are to start construction on that wing this spring.
Phase three will add four duplex-like cottages to the area around the center, increasing the center’s capacity from 24 to upwards of 40.
“The hospice part is the most rewarding part,” Fox said.
A local family, the Parkers, owns Mountain Springs. Heather Parker, Fox’s sister-in-law, coowns Mountain Springs with her husband, son and daughter and is also an administrator. Her father owned an assisted living facility in Colorado “for a long time,” Fox said.
“They just wanted to tap into that, and they wanted to bring compassion to the assisted living community,” Fox said. “They want to have a higher scale of living.”
Mountain Springs is a small, Christian-based business, Fox said. Its residents are cared for by a 26-person staff of medical technicians, care team members, kitchen team members and a housekeeper.
A resident’s daily schedule includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, devotional and Bible proverb readings, exercise, rest and other activities. For residents, each day starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m.
“We know that they’ve lived a long life,” Fox said. “And we want to help them just chill and relax.”
Mountain Springs also works with local hospices such as Auburn Crest Hospice in Hayden and Eden Hospice in Spokane. These hospices provide equipment as well as additional staff such as care team members who come biweekly, nurses and a chaplain who come weekly, an activities host who comes monthly, a social worker and a counselor.
“They both have really great teams that come in and help out,” Fox said.
Though she misses home, Kirschbaum said she feels at home at Mountain Springs. She likes the people, both staff and her fellow residents. And she has seen improvements in her and her fellow residents’ conditions since moving there. Fox attributes this to daily activity and a routine with scheduled meals and medications.
Kirschbaum and her husband plan to make Mountain Springs their permanent home. Sitton may even move to the hospice.
“The people that run it and work here, they’re all very gracious and make you feel at home,” Kirschbaum said. “And that’s what we need.”
