EMMETT, Idaho — Gem County's only hospital is expanding with a brand new urgent care clinic where neighbors navigating changing health care costs and coverage will soon be able to walk in for emergency care 24/7.
Shane Roe has lived in Emmett for 29 years, going on 30, and now serves as the board chair for Valor Health Center as the city celebrates the completion of a new urgent care clinic located at 2135 S. Substation Road, near the southwest corner of Highway 16 and S. Substation Road in Emmett.
"This is gonna really significantly increase the access for the community to health care right here in Emmett," Roe said.
WATCH | Check out Valor Health's new health clinic—
As board chair, Roe oversees meetings and helps set agendas, but emphasizes the collaborative nature of the board.
"Really, it's a collaborative effort of community volunteers who sit on the board," Roe said.
Monday's ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon comes after years of planning in a county where all health care needs have to funnel through a single hospital.
CEO Brad Turpen explained that this project has been nearly a decade in the making.
"This project has been in the works almost a decade, from first realizing that we needed to expand and create more access to healthcare in the community to going through the approval process, finding a piece of land. We had an interruption during COVID, and we had to sort of reset and find a new piece of land," Turpen said.
The lengthy process involved multiple challenges and partnerships.
"Finding partners to work with, finding banking partners, all of that just took a lot of time to create this, so it's been a long time coming," Turpen said.
The new Valor Health Center clinic adds expanded family medicine, pediatric care, and relocated urgent care services, all designed for convenience and accessibility to the Gem County community.
"We're celebrating opening this clinic, Valor Health Center. It's our new expanded family medicine, pediatrics, urgent care clinic here in Emmett, Idaho," Turpen said.
Roe explained how the expansion addresses space constraints at the existing facility.
"While we've always had, it used to be Walter Knox Memorial Hospital; we changed the name to Valor Health several years ago. It's always been available, but we're kind of getting crowded for space, and you know this gives a fresh new face and greater access for urgent care people commuting to and from Boise, so it'll just make it much easier," Roe said.
The expansion addresses the community's growing healthcare needs.
"I think it's huge for the community just to create. I mean, we're growing, more families are moving into town. Families who are here are growing, and so just to create more opportunity for people to get care in a convenient location, it's really, really important. That's one of the things that we do we do really well is provide primary care here in the community, and so improved access is a really big deal," Turpen said.
Roe and his family have been longtime users of Valor Health services and are excited about the new facility.
"I know I'm excited, you know, my family has used Valor Health for many, many years, and you know some of our primary care doctors are right here. We use the urgent care, so I know we're really excited," Roe said.
The clinic responds to the area's population growth and changing demographics.
"As we grow, the need for increased health care is abundant, right? So the community of Emmett and Gem County has been growing along with the Treasure Valley. So the need to provide greater and more health care options for our community members is really critical," Roe said.
Last month, Turpen discussed the financial pressures rural hospitals face with Idaho News 6, including state Medicaid reimbursement cuts and future federal changes that could leave more Idahoans uninsured.
"Providing healthcare in a rural environment is really, really challenging. I mean, there's no question about that reimbursement levels are low," Turpen said.
However, the hospital's focus on primary care helps support its broader mission.
"One of the things that we do that really creates financial strength for us is to provide that primary care that supports the ability for us to provide other more specialized services," Turpen said.
Despite financial challenges, Turpen emphasized the hospital's commitment to responsible management.
"Even though we're facing funding cuts and things like that, we work really, really hard here at Valor Health to be good financial stewards. We don't get any tax dollars, but we really do appreciate the community members who utilize our services and tell their neighbors and friends about us because that really helps everything work," Turpen said.
The clinic is designed to serve the community's unique needs, including commuters who work outside Gem County.
"We have a pretty big commuting population in the community. Well, they'll live here because they love living here and raising their family here, but they might work over in Boise or Meridian or something like that. And so we have the opportunity for not only urgent care after hours but also family medicine and primary care after hours and that really helps those families," Turpen said.
Leaders hope the clinic will keep care local and keep patients out of emergency rooms that are already overburdened. The new Valor Health Center serves as an additional clinic location, making quality primary care services more accessible to the Gem County community.
Roe says the new clinic is about maintaining Emmett's quality of life and shows the hospital's loyalty to Gem County neighbors as they anticipate federal cuts to hit in 2027.
"I think this shows our commitment to the community, shows our commitment to the health care and the well-being of the citizens of Gem County," Roe said.
The expansion doesn't stop here, with plans for additional growth in the future.
"We still have a couple of more acres here, so you know, I expect in the future that we'll be expanding even further, you know, maybe surgery, surgery clinics or something else, who knows what, but it really opens up more options for our community," Roe said.
Turpen outlined specific plans for future expansion, including educational partnerships.
"Once we get this expansion done we're actually working on a partnership with the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho to provide a rural training track here which would be expanded access to care training opportunities and that's one of the things, you know, in Idaho we have a shortage of medical training opportunities and so we'll be creating one of those opportunities," Turpen said.
Roe emphasized the community-owned nature of Valor Health and the volunteer commitment of board members.
"One of the primary things that I'd like folks to know is Valor Health is a community-owned hospital, so that means it's not a for-profit, and we're here to serve the community, and along with tha,t the board members are also community members. We're not paid board members, we volunteer our time and give up ourselves, and so it's really rewarding when we're able to accomplish things like this for the community we live in," Roe said.
The hospital is actively seeking new board members from the community.
"I would just encourage folks if you live in Gem County and you wanna get involved, there's a lot of different options to serve on different boards within the community. Valor Health is one of those options, and we're currently looking for board members," Roe said.
Valor Health's newest clinic is set to open on December 1st.
