Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka Hospital Staff Get SEARHC Offers

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Sitka Community Hospital employees have started receiving individual offers of future employment at the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, officials from both hospitals said today.
    “Everybody’s been anxiously waiting,” Sitka hospital CEO Rob Allen said.
    Some 160 employees of the workforce of 200 are expected to receive certified mail letters with a job offer and other information such as the SEARHC code of ethics, the holiday calendar for 2019 and the paid time off policy. Employees must turn in a response by May 29 to accept their offers, Allen said.

Rob Allen (Sentinel Photo)

    SEARHC senior executive vice president Dan Neumeister said the letters were put in the mail on Friday, and employment at SEARHC officially starts July 1.
    Some SCH employees – including Allen – have told SEARHC they’re not interested in receiving an offer of employment, and others aren’t eligible because they’re working under a contract or on a temporary basis, Allen said.
    On April 15, the Assembly on a 5-2 vote approved the final version of the Asset Purchase Agreement and Lease Agreement with SEARHC for purchase of the Sitka Community Hospital business and the lease of the Sitka hospital properties. A week later, the SEARHC board voted its approval of the agreement “pending satisfactory resolution of outstanding liabilities,” and anticipated that the effective date of the agreement would be June 30.
    The asset purchase and lease agreements included the purchase price of $16 million (through upfront and annual payments for 21 years) that would be paid to Sitka, and requirements that current SCH employees “in good standing” would be offered similar positions in Sitka for at least a year, with “commensurate salaries of SEARHC” employees, and the right to transfer up to 80 hours of paid time off.
    The documents say all Sitka residents will have access to enhanced primary and specialty services at SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital, including acute care, obstetrics and ancillary services. SEARHC will provide long-term care and rehabilitation and outpatient services at the Sitka Community Hospital facility.
    Allen said he hasn’t heard much reaction so far from SCH employees about their offers.
    “It’s been kind of quiet,” he said today. “They started getting them yesterday and we have not heard a lot.”
    SCH Director of Operations Steve Hartford said today he has not received an offer yet but it’s his understanding it’s in the mail.
    But so far, he said, members of his administrative team and other hospital staff members he’s talked to this morning have said the offers they have received are about what they expected, and they were happy to finally be able to start planning for their future.
    “People are happy to get it in black and white and hear directly that this is their role, this is their shift,” Hartford said, of the some half-dozen people he’s heard from.
    SCH employees are currently covered by the city’s health plan with Premera, and will have the option of choosing one of a number of plans available under SEARHC on July 1.
    “One of the hardest parts for people is figuring out which health care option to take, and having to struggle with starting over with their deductibles,” Allen said.
    Neumeister said the offers to Sitka Community employees should reflect that SEARHC is honoring its commitments under the APA.
    “We’ve been pretty open and honest and straightforward with staff at the town hall meetings about what to expect, and that our commitments would be honored,” he said. “We’re keeping them at the same PTO, the same salaries ... All of our commitments, they’re all being honored.”
    Neumeister said plans are in the works for staff from SEARHC to go over to SCH to conduct orientations with staff in the coming weeks.
    Allen said he has no immediate plans for what he will do after his last day at the community hospital, June 30.
    “I’m not sure at this point – I’ll spend the summer on the boat and see what happens next,” he said.