Assisted living needed

Supporters speak up for River Mountain Village

NEWPORT — Swapping River Mountain Village assisted living for child daycare would mean people here would have to drive to see elderly loved ones regularly. People who live in the area are looking for ways to care for their aging parents, as well as looking to the future for themselves. The population is aging and needed a facility like RMV.

River Mountain Village is under- marketed compared to other hospital services. Most people didn’t know the hospital district was looking into the changing RMV to child daycare. These were some of the points made by members of the public at the hospital district’s monthly board of commissioners meeting Thursday, Feb. 27.

Dr. Clay Kersting wrote a letter saying he was surprised when he read in this newspaper that the hospital district was looking into the possibility of eliminating River Mountain Village and starting a daycare.

“I am strongly in favor of having a daycare,” he wrote. “However, in the 30 years that I worked for the hospital, employees from all departments asked the hospital to create a daycare but were repeatedly told it wasn’t possible.” He said they were told under many administrations that it was too expensive or just not possible because of all the regulations. He doesn’t want a daycare to replace River Mountain Village, however.

“We need to be able to have elderly people stay in our community that need assisted care and not force them to leave,” Kersting wrote in the letter that was read aloud at the meeting.

Kersting wanted to know why RMV was losing money. He wrote that long-term care facilities in Spokane and other places are making money. He questioned why RMV wasn’t full.

“Where have all the residents gone and why?” he wrote. “Our community is aging and there should be more potential residents, not fewer.”

He asked about the marketing for RMV. He wrote that he had seen the billboard advertising hospital services but had not seen any promotion of River Mountain Village or long-term care, nor had he seen any promotional materials at the Camas Center, where he now works. He wrote he was shocked to learn RMV was not at full capacity.

“I have still been telling patients that you have a waiting list,” he wrote.

Another man speaking at the meeting said he was also opposed to modifying River Mountain Village into a daycare. He said if any of his family members had to go to Coeur d‘Alene or Post Falls for assisted living, other family members wouldn’t be able to go see them there.

“I’m really concerned about not having my family in my town,” he said.

He was also opposed to the hospital district getting into the childcare business.

“I just don’t believe the hospital district should be in the childcare business whatsoever,” he said. “I don’t think that it is within their scope.”

“My mother was in River Mountain Village, it was wonderful, it was like a home,” one woman told board members. “It was like she had her own little life.”

Moving to advanced care would be a step down, she said, describing the advanced care as a non-loving, sterile environment.

Linda LeVille said she was looking for a place for her 83-year-old mother, who had some dementia, but lived an active life with Bible study, dancing and walking. “She does all kinds of things,” she said. She said she was told her mother couldn’t live in River Mountain Village because it was not a locked facility, and she might wander off. An inexpensive keypad could solve that problem for people with mild dementia, as other places have, she said.

She said her mother was living at home with the help of her spouse, who was getting to the point where he was going to need some care.

“The very sad part is that he would meet the qualifications for going into River Mountain Village, but she would not,” LeVille said. “And so, they would have to split.” Or move out of the county.

LeVille said that she had spoken to a man who had moved his mother to assisted living in Spokane.

“He said he had probably made 100 trips to Spokane in the last year of her life,” she said. “How feasible is that for some of us?”

Alicia Bell, who used to run River Mountain Village, said it had a waiting list in the past. The issue of why it was losing money needed to be addressed, she said.

“I do appreciate some of the challenges, but I think it would be a huge shame to our county to lose RMV,” she said over Zoom.

A woman arriving after the public comment period said it would likely cost quite a bit of money to convert the RMV into daycare. She said her father had lived there for three years.

“It was very beneficial for us to have him closer to me,” she said. She said she wanted it to remain. “Personally, for me, because I’m getting to that age, I might have to use it and I would like it to be there,” she said.

Later in the meeting hospital CAO Joseph Clouse said River Mountain Village was not getting requests for new residents. He said there were 42 beds at RMV but only 29 were occupied.

Also later in the meeting, Hospital CEO Kim Manus said the advanced care assisted living was part of the bond, but River Mountain Village had been purchased from Pend Oreille Assisted Living Corporation in 2001. River Mountain Village was not part of the voter-approved bond.

Manus said that administrators were still gathering information about any change to River Mountain Village. She said there would be public meetings before any changes were made to the use of RMV. Hospital public information officer Jenny Smith said that on the main page of the Newport Hospital and Health Services website, there is a Childcare Exploration portion.

“We’re going to keep that updated,” Smith said.