Newport hospital welcomes newest doctor

NEWPORT — Dr. Kevin McNamee joined the family of Newport family practice providers in October and is currently accepting new patients. 

Certified in family medicine and surgical obstetrics, McNamee’s arrival further expands rural obstetrics access for rural Eastern Washington and North Idaho residents.

After graduating from Ferris High School in Spokane, McNamee completed his undergraduate degree at Carroll College and entered the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Targeted Rural and Underserved Track Scholar program during medical school. TRUST seeks to provide a continuous connection between underserved communities, medical education, and health professionals in our region. The goal is to create a full-circle pipeline by guiding qualified students through a special curriculum that connects underserved communities in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho to the UW School of Medicine and its network of affiliated residency programs in an effort to help meet the workforce needs of the region.

Through TRUST, McNamee completed a five-month rotation at Newport Hospital and Health Services, providing valuable experience with inpatient and outpatient settings, including office-based procedures, prenatal care, and labor and delivery. He said that the program provided long-term exposure to Newport over the years, further cementing his interest in full-spectrum family medicine, especially since it provided the opportunity to live in the area. McNamee completed his surgical obstetrics fellowship with Spokane Teaching Health Center.

McNamee became interested in medicine at a young age and became interested in rural family medicine as an undergraduate student in Montana.

“I like having more longitudinal relationships with patients,” he said.

McNamee began his residency program during the worst part of the pandemic. 

“It was interesting to be in medicine at a time where there was a new disease entity, and we didn’t know how to treat it. There was so much angst in the absence of information about the disease, and it made me appreciate how the field of medicine grows and changes in response to new evidence.”

McNamee lives in Pend Oreille County and appreciates the rural lifestyle.  In his spare time, he enjoys camping, hiking, fly fishing, skiing and snowshoeing.

Newport Hospital and Health Services, established in 1921 by Pend Oreille County Public Hospital District No. 1, offers a range of primary and emergency services, surgical specialties, specialty clinics and a medical acute care unit.