Hospital Chief Reports Progress to Chamber

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Category: News

Created on Thursday, 06 March 2025 16:00

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GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer

SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center Administrator Bill Spivey gave the Chamber of Commerce Wednesday an outline of the $250 million expansion under way at the Japonski Island complex.

The expansion, a joint venture between the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and the federal Indian Health Service, began in 2021, shortly after SEARHC purchased the property of Sitka Community Hospital and became the health services provider for the entire community.

Bill Spivey (Sentinel Photo)

Work continues today on the new SEARHC medical center. (Sentinel Photo)

Over the past year, the new building has taken shape, its expanse of black panel windows becoming a prominent feature of the western side of Sitka Channel.

“This hospital will almost double the existing square footage of the hospital where we are now," Spivey told the Chamber. "It will bring all services, existing current services, over to the new space, other than long-term care and the opioid treatment program, which will remain in the Sitka Medical Center area.”

That area, on the eastern side of the channel, includes the buildings of the old Sitka Community Hospital in the 800 block of Halibut Point Road as well as the nearby Sitka Medical Center on Katlian Street.

There is no plan to add beds to the hospital on Japonski Island, as there is a limit to how large a facility can become without losing its “critical access hospital” designation, which is important for Medicare reimbursement, Spivey said.

“There was never an intention to significantly grow staffing and or service lines. The intent is to create a new space that is much better laid out for providing health care across the way. So there is no projected increase,” he said.

In addition to the money being spent on the medical facility, SEARHC and the Indian Health Service have invested $21.6 million into workforce housing, also a requirement of the project, he said.

“SEARHC is absolutely investing in the community of Sitka and across the consortium,” he said.

The average annual pay at SEARHC comes to $115,000, and rose by over 12 percent last year. The lowest paid workers make $25 hourly, Spivey said.

The facility was scheduled to open in the fall of 2025, SEARHC officials said in December, but that date is now January of 2026, Spivey said in his talk at the Chamber meeting.

“'Finished' is the word we try to stay away from," he said. "We like to say ‘reach substantial completion,’ which is a point at which we can actually start moving in.

"And right now, the date we're looking at is January of ‘26, and I say that under dire threat of we all know what construction is like,” Spivey said. “We know what the delays are like. We know that there have been delays coming. I hate to use the term, but it's supply chain issues… There were some significant supply chain issues that have backed us up a bit, but we're getting more and more confident about that date every day.”

Spivey came to Sitka in 2003 as a physical therapist at Sitka Community Hospital. He moved away for a time but came back to work as a PT in the SEARHC home health department.

“In August of last year, I was offered the opportunity to take the position I'm in now,” he said. As it happened, his first challenge on the job was dealing with the loss of internet communications when the GCI fiberoptic cable broke last summer.

History is repeating, with GCI's notice that internet service will be interrupted again for cable repairs starting Sunday, just as SEARHC is preparing to go live with a new electronic medical record system.

The existing multi-story SEARHC hospital has been remodeled in recent years, but a decision has not been made on its use after the extension is finished, Spivey said.

“We don't know,” he acknowledged. “We've got a lot of options available with the old building, and there has been discussion with the state Legislature about opportunities for that building. There's been discussions of several different options, but we're not there yet. The Board provides that direction, and so what we are currently doing, or what the senior leadership is currently doing, is pulling all those options together to provide that information to the board.”

On the state of funding for SEARHC in the wake of the Trump administration's attempt to freeze federal grants, Spivey said SEARHC leaders are working to ensure fiscal security.

“I asked the same question when I was in Juneau yesterday," he said. "I guarantee you they are watching that very closely,”

Regarding any possible threat to SEARHC’s federal revenue, "that's not the information that would trickle down to me to give you a direct answer, but I have no doubt they're not just aware, they are constantly in communication, watching," he said.

"Historically, there has always been a component of IHS funding… I haven't worked for SEARHC long enough to know the comparison between IHS funding and the revenue that's generated from the rest of our services, but I think all I can say is it would be less impactful than it would have been once upon a time.”

In 2024, said Spivey, SEARHC’s Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center provided nearly 130,000 clinic visits, 80,000 behavioral health visits, and 45,000 rehabilitation appointments. SEARHC operates in 26 Southeast communities.

As part of the ongoing hospital construction, SEARHC has built dozens of housing units for staff, but Spivey said the organization has no interest “in being in the real estate business.” The IHS required SEARHC to build housing as a condition of the contract the groups signed, he noted.

“All the years I've been here, it's never been a question of wanting to build, it's where would we put it? … For so many years, this is where I was – I would recruit a rehab provider, do my interview, get them scheduled to come, they start looking for a place to live, and they would back out before they were supposed to arrive, over and over and over again,” Spivey said.