Newport Hospital and Health Services has received three 2026 American Heart Association “Get With The Guidelines” rural achievement awards, recognizing the facility’s cardiac and stroke care programs serving the Pend Oreille River Valley.
The Newport, Wash.-based critical access hospital earned gold recognition for Rural Stroke care, silver for Rural Coronary Artery Disease NSTE-ACS, and bronze for Rural Coronary Artery Disease STEMI. The awards, announced Tuesday, span two of the most time-sensitive categories in emergency medicine, where outcomes often hinge on the speed and consistency of care delivered at smaller, rural facilities.
Care Close to Home
NHHS CEO Kim Manus credited the hospital’s frontline workforce for the recognitions. “These awards reflect the commitment of our physicians, nurses, EMS partners, and clinical staff to providing exceptional care close to home,” she said.
The hospital, which has served the region since 1921, is owned and operated by the Pend Oreille County Public Hospital District. With 37 providers on staff, NHHS offers a broad range of services including primary care, express care, behavioral health, obstetrics, and emergency services — a comprehensive slate for a rural critical access facility.
The Pend Oreille River Valley, which spans the Washington-Idaho border near Bonner County, is a region where residents often face significant distances to larger medical centers. Recognition from the American Heart Association underscores the hospital’s role as a cornerstone of healthcare access in this rural corridor.
What the Awards Mean
The American Heart Association’s “Get With The Guidelines” program sets evidence-based benchmarks for hospitals treating heart attack and stroke patients. Rural hospitals face unique challenges meeting those standards given limited staffing, equipment constraints, and patient transfer logistics. Earning recognition at three separate levels signals sustained performance across multiple clinical protocols, not just a single department or episode of care.
For communities like Newport and the broader Pend Oreille Valley, having a local facility recognized at this level carries practical significance. Patients experiencing a stroke or cardiac event benefit most when high-quality intervention begins quickly, and rural hospitals that meet these guidelines help close the gap between urban and rural survival rates.
The 2026 awards cover both ischemic and non-ischemic cardiac presentations — STEMI being the more acute, fully blocked artery heart attack, while NSTE-ACS refers to a partially blocked vessel — alongside stroke care, reflecting the hospital’s breadth of emergency cardiac capabilities.
What Comes Next
NHHS has not announced specific program expansions tied to the awards, but continued participation in the Get With The Guidelines program typically involves ongoing quality reporting and periodic reassessment against national benchmarks. The hospital’s performance will likely be reviewed again for the 2027 award cycle.
For Bonner County residents and North Idaho communities near the Washington border, NHHS remains a vital regional partner in emergency and primary care services. Local community events and health initiatives across the area continue to support the broader goal of improving health outcomes in rural North Idaho — from hospital-level care to community gatherings like the Sandpoint YMCA’s Campfire Event, which connects families with local health and support organizations.