Alaska Native elders in rural Alaska are often times required to travel long distances to receive essential healthcare services. Many are required to travel from their village to Fairbanks and to Anchorage to receive basic and specialty health services.
However, in July, much of this will change when Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) opens its doors to the newly expanded portion of the Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center (CAIHC) in Fairbanks. The expansion of the clinic will provide the opportunity for TCC to expand existing health service lines as well as add new services that are essential to the overall health and wellbeing of tribal members both in Fairbanks and in the villages we serve.
“One of our goals with the expansion was to bring healthcare closer to home for our patients,” says Chief/Chairman Brian Ridley, “This includes our rural patients who have the inconvenience of traveling long distances to access care outside of Fairbanks.”
Many of the new services lines, which include an Ambulatory Surgery Center, Ophthalmology, Audiology and Hematology/Oncology, will reduce the need for patients to travel outside of Fairbanks to access those healthcare services and will improve their overall healthcare experience by receiving more of their care in one facility.
“We have heard numerous times about the challenges our patients face when traveling long distances for an appointment– specifically elders,” said Jacoline Bergstrom, Executive Director of Health Services, “Travel can be very taxing on our elderly population and many of our new service lines will lessen the need to travel long distances for healthcare.”
While the construction of the expansion project began in 2020, the planning for it started several years ago.
The Beginning
In 2012, the newly built Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center opened its doors to the public. At the time, the sprawling 95,000 square foot clinic was large in comparison to the small portion of the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital where the clinic was previously housed.
The building was a huge accomplishment for Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) and provided a space that patients could call their own.
The clinic was designed to meet the projected needs of TCC’s patient population until the year 2020– but in 2017, TCC realized that they had hit that target earlier than anticipated.
“It was around that time that we really started planning for our next expansion,” explained Bergstrom, “We wanted to make sure that we could provide our existing services to everyone who needs it as well as look at opportunities for expanded services.”
TCC not only evaluated existing services, but studied anticipated population growth to determine what additional services were needed.
“Our population of elders is going to continue to grow– which means that there will be an increased need for elder services,” says Bergstrom, “As people grow older, the need for certain services increases. This gave us a good idea of what services are needed in the future and how much space we would need.”
The Design
“Early on in the planning stages we worked with staff from various clinical areas on what their ideal workspace would look like,” says Bergstrom, “Staff were able to look at scale models and make adjustments that would make the most sense for their workflows.”
Not only did clinic staff participate, but members of TCC’s Health Advisory Board were also present and provided a unique patient perspective for the layout of the new facility.
“The Health Board was able to gain a better understanding of what happens behind the scenes at the clinic and gave input from the point of view of the patient,” explained Bergstrom, “So it was helpful to capture both sides of how things could be designed to improve services.”
Outside developing the layout of the clinic, TCC also developed a Cultural Advisory Committee which included elders from throughout the TCC region. This committee worked closely with architects and designers to ensure that the clinic had design elements that represented Alaska Native culture to truly reflect the patients being served.
One of the unique new features of the expansion that the Cultural Committee advocated for was a meditation room. The committee wanted an area that served as a private space where patients could go if they needed time to reflect, pray and find quiet time.
In addition to this, there will also be a cultural gallery that will showcase various Alaska Native artwork from artists throughout Alaska.
What to Expect
The expansion will add a 3-story 108,000 square foot addition to the existing health center. The third floor will be left unfinished to provide for future expansion of services.
Specialty Services, Laboratory, Radiology, and Urgent Care currently housed at the existing facility will be moved into the new expansion with more space to increase capacity.
“The expanded Radiology space will now include a CT scan,” says Bergstrom, “Which means patients will be able to have a CT scan done right here at our clinic.”
The laboratory expansion will allow space for two large analyzers that will allow for additional lab tests to be processed in-house.
Probably one of the most exciting new features of the expansion will be a Cancer Care C and Infusion Center.
“That was something that was a wish from many of our people,” Bergstrom explains, “There will always be a need for patients to travel out of Fairbanks for specific cancers that require a certain level of specialty care, but we will still be able to provide increased care for the more common cancer types.”
Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center will still be working closely with Alaska Native Medical Center for cancer care and infusions, says Bergstrom. The close collaboration with the Oncologists in Anchorage will help to reduce the number of times a patient would need to travel to Anchorage for care.
New services at the clinic include:
- Ambulatory Surgery Center. This will provide the opportunity for patients to have surgeries and procedures performed safely in Fairbanks – rather than going to Anchorage or being referred outside of the Tribal Health System.
- Ophthalmology. This will provide diagnosis and treatment of different eye diseases in-house, and the ability to perform surgery when needed.
- Audiology. This will allow CAIHC to expand the audiology services that we currently provide through a partnership with the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC). We will have more capacity in-house with advanced equipment for diagnostic testing and hearing aid prescriptions.
- Hematology/Oncology. This will provide CAIHC with the ability to offer some of the specialized cancer treatments and other type of infusions. TCC will continue to partner with ANMC and other providers and coordinate services when patients are referred out for specialized services that we are not able to provide.
Looking to the Future
It wasn’t long ago that TCC had finalized construction on the existing Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center and now TCC will be opening an even more robust facility – designed to meet the needs of our patient population well into the future.
“Reflecting back, you can see the healthcare journey that we are on as far as expansion of services and adapting those services to the needs of our growing and changing population. It’s somewhat reflected in our expansion today– it’s another step in the journey of healthcare delivery for now and the future,” says Bergstrom.
TCC will continue to evolve and grow to meet the increasing needs of our growing patient population.
“I am so proud of how far we’ve come in the past several years as we increase our healthcare capacity,” says Chief Ridley, “The overall health and wellbeing of our patients is one of our highest priorities and the expansion is just one more step towards our vision of Healthy, Strong, Unified Tribes.”
The clinic expansion is set to open in July 2022. TCC will be providing more information to patients as the opening date draws near.
