Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium leadership and the Sitka Community Health Council will hold an annual listening session from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday at Harrigan Centennial Hall. 

Sitkans can ask SEARHC leaders questions during a Q&A portion of the annual event, which was rescheduled from March 17 because of a network outage scheduled in Sitka at that time, SEARHC said in a Facebook post. 

Sitka’s Community Health Council advises SEARHC on local health needs, and gives input and recommendations on the quality of care provided at SEARHC clinical facilities. 

The once-yearly public meeting of SEARHC with the Community Council is required as part of the 2019 purchase agreement for Sitka Community Hospital between SEARHC and the City and Borough of Sitka. 

Conversations at this year’s meeting could center on progress of construction of the new Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center hospital that will be about twice the size of the current hospital.

Juneau-based SEARHC spokesperson Matt Carle said Thursday that the annual meeting typically provides “kind of a comprehensive overview on what’s happening (in Sitka) locally in the community as it relates to our health care presence. 

“We have a number of our leadership, both on the administrative side and the clinical side, that will be available providing overviews on various sections, and then we’ll transition into the Q&A, the public forum session,” Carle said. 

Giving an update on the construction timeline on Thursday, Carle said that “we’re looking at the spring of 2026, that’s the window that we’re operating under right now,” an adjustment from projections this winter that the $410 million hospital facility would open in the fall of 2025. 

Carle said “construction projects in Alaska are always complicated” so SEARHC leadership is operating under a “broader window” of “early 2026” and will be “trying to stick within that range.”

Of the new hospital, Carle said that “all of the services that they have received prior will be available at the new hospital. … There will be some volume increases, but I don’t think it’ll be in terms of the actual bed space.”

SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center Administrator Bill Spivey “will talk a little bit more to that during the meeting,” Carle said.

Carle said a SEARHC recruiting team is working to “address our overall staffing needs not just in Sitka, but across the region.” 

“We're also looking at ways to make Alaska a more attractive destination for people that are not from the state, or didn't grow up here in the region that they, you know, see that there's a potential career pathway for them here,” Carle said. 

Community members with questions about the listening session can contact SEARHC by email to marketing@searhc.org,  

Carle said that people can contact SEARHC via its “patient experience feedback platform,” and noted that “our social media is another venue for folks.”