Health care assessor wanted

PALMER -- Local health-care agencies want to know how the Valley's rural residents seek and get medical care.

More than $150,000 in grant money is available for an assessment of rural health care services and facilities in areas outside the borough's core area.

But when the Mat-Su Borough recently sought proposals for the job, no one responded.

Susan Mason-Bourterse runs the Sunshine Community Health Center in Talkeetna. She knows firsthand that residents in the far-reaches of the Valley have unique health concerns not being addressed.

"People in the rural areas often make less money and have less options for health care," she said. And although affordable health care is an issue for many Alaskans, rural residents also face problems getting basic services such as dental care, emergency services and mental health intervention.

"Dental care is a real problem," Mason-Bourterse said. Her clinic has seen several patients with life-threatening conditions that could have been avoided with an earlier trip to the dentist.

Hers is not the only agency that noticed that the outlying communities were in need of medical services. The question that remained was what exactly are the problems? And, for example, do Lake Louise residents have different concerns than those people who live in Trapper Creek?

Another problem was that there was "not even an avenue for those providers to talk to each other," Mason-Bourterse said.

So in 2001, a coalition of Valley health-care providers united to examine these issues collaboratively, rather than competitively, according to Mason-Bourterse and borough planner Beth McKibben. As the Rural Mat-Su Healthcare Providers Network, the Sunshine Clinic, Valley Hospital, Chickaloon Health Services, North Valley Development Corp. and Southcentral Foundation jointly filed for a grant from the Denali Commission to provide for planning and needs assessment for rural health care throughout the borough.

The hope is for the involved agencies to use the information to see where the gaps in service are and work together to address lacking care, Mason-Bourterse said.

Now with more than $150,000 in grant money available being overseen by the Mat-Su Borough, someone needs to get started on the work. Although no one responded to a request for proposals for the study, McKibben hopes interested parties will contact her at 745-9833 for more information on the project.