SANDPOINT — During a highly attended special meeting, the Bonner County Board of Commissioners met with representatives from Panhandle Health District to continue discussions of a clinical service audit and the FY27 budget development.  

The two-hour meeting saw approximately 40 women in attendance, most of whom were holding signs that read “I am niche,” a nod to a comment made during the BOCC and PHD audit meeting Jan. 14, where PHD Medical Director Gregory Pennock reported that 70% of PHD’s clinical patients are women. In that acknowledgment, Pennock said that women's services, to some extent, were a niche that the district was serving — a specialized segment of the district’s clientele.  

The word ‘niche’ has multiple definitions, one that uses the word to describe something affecting a small number of people, and another that describes something very suitable and liked. 

Community members showed up in support of women’s healthcare services, with a message that those services should not be removed from the district’s clinical services, and that they were worth funding.  

However, the special meeting did not include a discussion on women’s healthcare services, but how the district intends to newly model the clinic, putting an emphasis on individualized care and cost-saving methods, while keeping all women’s clinical services.  

“Women are the cornerstone of medical decision making within the family, and we have an existing women’s health clinic that we can focus on and build up," Pennock said. “We’re going to continue it, so for everybody who thinks we’re going to shut down the clinic, that’s never been the recommendation, nor is it today. But we’re going to add chronic disease prevention and treatment programs on top of that.” 

According to Nancy Gerth, a woman who attended the meeting with several friends, the topics discussed where not what attendees thought the meeting would be about. Gerth said that many had read an opinion piece from The Reader — a letter that raised concerns about women’s healthcare accessibility and Pennock and Commissioner Ron Korn’s “dim views”— and an article from the Coeur d’Alene Press that also discussed reproductive health care access concerns.  

Talking with the Press, Pennock said in early February that the district was unsure of what clinical model would be approved by the board. This comment, in addition to a comment made by Korn, where he raised concerns of funding a Planned Parenthood type-clinic, reproductive activists shared concerns that women’s health services may be on the chopping block.  

“One of the officials involved had made a statement about women making up 70% of the people who go to Panhandle Health District for help, and that women’s health was a niche area. So, we’re pretty mad about that,” community member Nancy Gerth told The Daily Bee. “I’m upset that he used the word niche, because it has a pretty clear derogatory meaning.”  

As it stands, Pennock said PHD expects to centralize its clinic around women’s healthcare and add its services to include preventative and chronic disease medicine and functional/alternative medicine. Comments on utilizing the Medical Reserve Corps to staff clinics were also discussed, but the details have not been ironed out.  

PHD will also be providing additional data to the Bonner County commissioners for further discussion at a future meeting to determine the practicalities of the county’s monetary contributions to the clinic for the services provided.  

PHD currently hosts clinics five days a week in Hayden, once a week in Sandpoint and once a week divided between Kellogg and Saint Maries. Bonner County officials are currently requesting the clinic's presence twice a week.  

    A full meeting room at the PHD and BOCC special meeting