Skagway residents will soon be asked whether or not the municipality should sell the Dahl memorial clinic business to SEARHC. The question will be posed in a special election on Tuesday.
Twenty years ago the Municipality of Skagway took ownership of the local clinic and runs it as one of its departments. A nine-person board oversees the clinic, which is partly funded by the municipality. Tuesday’s coming special election may change this arrangement. Two questions concerning the clinic are on the ballot. The first asks voters to decide whether they want any change of status for the clinic to go through a vote.
The second one specifically asks if the municipality should lease the clinic building and sell the business to SEARHC, the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. The lease would last 25 years.
Depending on how those questions are answered, Skagway’s borough manager could enter into negotiations with SEARHC and bring a contract before the assembly.
Residents could also vote against having SEARHC take over the clinic. This would bring no changes to current operations. If both ballot measures pass, the contract with SEARHC would have to be approved by a vote, probably at the next regular election in October.
The local paper, Skagway News held a town hall on Wednesday evening. Representatives from the municipality, SEARHC and the clinic came to answer questions from the public.
Vice Mayor Orion Hanson spoke in favor of turning the operations of the clinic to SEARHC. He said it is difficult to find volunteers to seat on the clinic’s board, and these volunteers mostly do not have experience with the healthcare industry. He also said the municipality spends over a million dollars a year to fund the clinic, and selling the business to SEARHC for one dollar is a good deal for the municipality.
Residents asked Jeremy Simmons, the president of the board of the clinic, what the advantages of municipal ownership are. He responded that the board is part of the community, and in touch with community needs. With this model he said, the community gets to decide what sort of care is appropriate to bring to the clinic.
Heidi Aylsworth is SEARHC’s chief strategy officer. When asked how her organization would know of Skagway’s particular needs, she answered that one member of the SEARHC board is a Skagway resident.
Aylsworth was asked what the advantages of turning over the clinic to SEARHC would be.
She said that SEARHC would bring a varied experience in healthcare management, IT, pharmacy, legal compliance and grant writing. She said running a clinic is a complicated business, and is likely to be a drain on the municipality’s resources.
Some residents were concerned the price of treatment would go up. Aylsworth said that SEARHC has looked at the cost of the most common services provided at the clinic, and that the prices are similar to what SEARHC offers at its other locations .
Residents asked if current employees would retain their jobs. Aylsworth said it is in SEARHC’s interest to keep the existing staff, and that the clinic is staffed at a level comparable to those of other clinics in similar size communities. She said she did not foresee any layoffs. However, she said SEARHC would have to do its due diligence and vet all employees before bringing them on the SEARHC payroll.
Residents said they were concerned that the staff would have to reapply for their position, and wondered if SEARHC would provide the same benefits the municipality currently does.
On its website, SEARHC lists close to twenty communities in Southeast where it provides healthcare, from a full service clinic in Juneau to a health center in Pelican. If SEARHC takes over the operation of the Dahl Memorial Clinic, the municipality would retain ownership of the building and act as landlord.
The special election will take place on Tuesday in Skagway.
