anniversary of management by thre regional, tribal health organization will be
held 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 17 at the Haines ANB Hall.
SEARHC took over management from Lynn Canal Medical Center, a
non-profit beleaguered by financial troubles, in 1988.
"Lynn Canal’s revenue was not meeting expenses and we
probably were going to close," said clinic administrator Marcia Scott, who worked for
Lynn Canal Medical Center before SEARHC took over. "SEARHC increased medical staff,
made equipment improvements and we’ve had a significant increase in services we never
had before."
Businessman Chip Lende served on the board of Lynn Canal Medical, which
formed when Dr. Stan Jones closed his private practice, citing spiraling insurance and
paperwork costs. Relying on revenues to fund operation, the new organization ran into
similar problems.
"It was difficult to keep the thing running. Sometimes we
didn’t know if we would make payroll," Lende said.
Klukwan, Inc. donated the several hundred thousand dollars in the early
1990s to start Lynn Canal Medical, which initially served both Haines and Skagway. The
borough later bought the building.
Mark Gorman, SEARHC vice president of community health services, said
when SEARHC took over, the non-profit was within a month of closing its doors and the
borough had recently spent $30,000 bailing it out. Lynn Canal Medical had seven employees
and an annual budget of $700,000.
"The facility was in terrible condition," Gorman said.
"The municipality gave it to us for $1. There were very serious safety concerns that
we addressed immediately."
Five governing bodies – the Chilkoot Indian Association, the
Chilkat Indian Village, the Haines Borough, the City of Haines, and the SEARHC board
– negotiated the clinic takeover and wrote letters of support. Gorman called the
accord significant.
Hill said although local governments were mostly unanimous in support
of SEARHC, there were some skeptics in the community who wondered if a tribally run
organization could revitalize the clinic. "Generally speaking…most people were
willing to give SEARHC a try."
In 2005, SEARHC completed a five-year, $4 million renovation and
expansion of the clinic facility, a project funded in part by Denali Commission and
Rasmuson Foundation grants.
The work more than doubled the clinic’s size and added a central
nurses’ station, two exam rooms, an expanded reception area, a pharmacy, business
office, a new lab, sterilization room, and restrooms. The expansion also provided space in
the building for the SEARHC dental clinic, a physical therapist, and the Wisewoman
program, and allowed the clinic to host visiting specialists.
An income-based sliding fee schedule, made possible by federal
community health center grants through the U.S. Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) two years after SEARHC moved in, expanded community access to health
services.
"It affects me in a big way," resident Mark Allen said of the
sliding scale. "I wouldn’t be able to go otherwise. It makes it available to me
where otherwise I’d abstain" from seeking medical care.
Borough manager Robert Venables called SEARHC’s contribution to
the community "huge." Besides providing support services for private doctors and
health agencies like Cornerstone Home Health Care, the clinic’s level of service
combined with local ambulance service have been key to attracting retirees to town.
"(Their contribution) is much bigger than folks give them credit for or are aware
of."
Without SEARHC, the borough would likely be making an annual subsidy to
maintain medical service in Haines, Venables said. In Skagway, the municipality pays
$250,000 a year subsidizing a clinic.
Gorman said an unplanned benefit of the SEARHC takeover was a greater
sense of solidarity between tribal and non-tribal communities. He said in years past,
there was resentment Natives had access to care non-Natives couldn’t afford.
"That barrier has been removed in Haines," Gorman said.
Although SEARHC’s primary mission is to serve the Native population in Southeast,
coverage is often extended to rural communities at large where resources and facilities
allowed, he said.
Gorman said while Haines was lucky to have physicians in private
practice, the SEARHC clinic filled a need for 24-hour coverage and provided a greater
range of services. "You’d have to travel far and wide in rural areas to find the
level and sophistication of care" available through the SEARHC clinic.
Hill said while much funding came through Indian Health Services, money
from HRSA and Denali Commission depended on the clinic serving all the people in the
community.
Over the past 10 years, SEARHC has added a pharmacist, a dental
program, a physical therapist, a moderate complexity laboratory, Community Wellness
Advocates, and a licensed clinical social worker. HRSA grants funded many of the new
programs and positions.
Payroll for the 18 employees in the SEARHC Haines Health Center alone
is nearly $1.12 million, Scott said. The clinic had 19,000 visits for all types of
services last year.
Regionwide, SEARHC is currently implementing an electronic records
system and patient accounts program, which will facilitate billing and help providers keep
track of patient histories and treatment schedules.
"I certainly think SEARHC is a very valuable asset to the
community," said Linda Keirstead, a former SEARHC physician who opened a private
practice last November.
Backed by a large and well-funded organization, the SEARHC clinic
complemented what her office could provide with services such as radiology and specialty
clinics, Keirstead said.
