A ballot measure to decide whether to turn Skagway’s medical clinic over to a regional tribal health consortium could go before voters later this year. That’s following a 4-2 vote Thursday evening by the Skagway Assembly which has been negotiating with the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, known as “SEARHC,” to take over health care in the community.
It was near midnight on Thursday when Skagway’s assembly came out of executive session. And they quickly got to the business of addressing what many see as a crisis at the community-owned health clinic that’s been plagued by high turnover in medical staff and leadership.
Assemblyperson Orion Hanson brought the motion to the table to put the sale of all Dahl Memorial Clinic properties, including the building, land, and assets to the regional tribal health organization for a public vote.
“SEARHC seems to be kind of an all-or-nothing proposition. They’re only interested now if they can own the building and the land and all the assets and not lease it. I was hopeful there will be some sort of opportunity for a honeymoon period, to see if it’s a good fit for Skagway. Apparently, SEARHC is not interested in that,” said Hanson.
Hanson is one of the people that believe the clinic is in crisis. There are currently five open permanent positions advertised on the municipal website, and two temporary spots. The clinic only employs 16 full-time staff. Two of the open positions include a nurse practitioner and executive director. Recently a long-serving registered nurse resigned, and the interim executive director is no longer involved in day-to-day activities.
“I take responsibility. I think everybody on this assembly takes responsibility for the short fallings of the clinic because every two weeks, we approve the check run. And a significant part of that portion of that check run is clinic-related and I know it’s a great source of pride for the community that they own that building. And I feel that as well… I did not feel great about having to make that motion to have it on the ballot of selling the clinic. But I don’t know what (other) options we have,” said Hanson.
The motion passed with four votes for and two votes against. Assemblyperson Jay Burnham was one of the pair of “no” votes.
“I didn’t quite have enough information to feel comfortable sending it to the voters. And also, I think that it, I don’t know if it would really be a popular thing. And I would hate to waste more time with putting it out to a vote,” said Burnham.
The other “no” vote came from assemblyperson Sam Bass who told KHNS in a written statement that he wanted more time to consider the idea of including the building and land in the deal with SEARHC.
Previously talks with SEARHC had contained the possibility of leasing the property from the municipality.
The next step the assembly took was to direct the mayor to nominate two members of the assembly to serve on the volunteer-based nine-member clinic board of directors. That board makes the bulk of the staffing decisions for the clinic. The motion passed unanimously.
Hanson says this step was taken as a means to help streamline meetings and add people to the board that feel the same sense of urgency expressed to the assembly by their constituents.
“I think our feeling on the assembly is that a lot of changes needed to be made. And we’ve hoped and been patient and waited to see how that would come about, and it doesn’t seem to be changing,” said Hanson.
Next, Skagway’s mayor will make the nominations, then the assembly will confirm them. Additionally, two spots on the clinic board will have to open up to make room for the new additions. That will either come from resignations, or by the assembly rescinding appointments. That’s still being worked out.
There is no formal word on when the ballot measure to sell the Dahl Memorial Clinic to SEARHC would go to Skagway voters. Hanson thinks it could be as early as July or as late as October during municipal elections.
