Mat-Su Regional applying for certificate of need to upgrade emergency department

PALMER — About 15 medical professionals from across the Mat-Su Valley showed their support at a public hearing for the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center (MSRMC) certification of need application. After stirring some excitement getting their first certificate approved last year, starting construction to add 36 additional medical/surgical beds, the hospital is asking for the state’s approval for additional expansion to upgrade their emergency department and behavioral health program.

“This project matters and its time has come,” said Elizabeth Ripley, CEO of the Mat-Su Health Foundation.

The hospital aims to streamline within their campus, creating a specialized section for behavioral health patients. The project which seemed to be appropriately timed and much needed in the community since the entire room unanimously supported it.

“I think the hospital did their due diligence looking at the needs of the Valley,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Practicing emergency physician and medical director for the Mat-Su emergency management

The emergency department currently has 18 general treatment rooms and if approved, they will add 12 more beds, eight general emergency and four behavioral health patients, ranging from drug overdoses to suicide attempts. Two “safe rooms” are included in the proposal.

“It will add a more quiet, secure, and therapeutic behavioral health environment to address the needs of the growing behavioral health crisis we see and experience every day,” Zink said.

An additional behavioral health facility is already in the design/development stage and will erect near the Emergency Department. This will open up more beds for general emergencies and help care for behavioral health patients detox from drugs, as well as those caught in treatment “limbo.”

Due to rapid population grows and an increase of behavioral health related visits, beds in the MSRC are in high demand and in short supply for both hospitals and treatment centers across the state, including the Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API) and North Star. The Valley is the fastest growing area in the state at rates that exceed the national trends. When it’s time to send patients to a treatment facility, many patients get stuck in limbo, waiting for an open bed.

The behavior health facility is expected to conclude construction by December 2020. This upgrade includes 10,000 square feet of new construction with 7,800 square feet of renovated space. It will cost about $14.5 million. This is the hospital’s second application for a certificate of need and, if approved, it will dovetail into their previously approved project.

“They’ve been designed together — architecturally and strategically planned to minimize construction and maximize flow in the hospital,” Zink said.

The overall campus expansion would more than double hospital’s size and would be the largest endeavor since the hospital opened.

“Upgrading our emergency department will better equip us to treat patients with emergency behavioral health needs before they transition to care in the new behavioral health treatment center that will be built on campus,” said Dave Wallace, CEO of MSRMC in his letter asking the state to approve the project.

If approved, the Emergency Department upgrade would also improve the hospital’s ability to care for patients having heart attacks, strokes or who are suffering from a traumatic injury, according Wallace.

This project already has funding and just needs the state’s approval to start up The hospital isn’t asking for any funds from the state, only the green light to expand based on the needs of the community, according to Zink. The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) and Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS), the parent hospital that owns MSRMC will fund the expansion. After years of research, planning and development, the project is facing the final hurdle, Zink said.

“This is one of the final steps from a long journey,” Zink said.

The number of behavioral health visit have spiked at an alarming rate, increasing over 20 percent over the past three years, according to Zink. She said that within that range, a large number of patients are schizophrenic or have other psychological disorders. On average, behavioral health patients tend to wait at the hospital to get into a long term treatment facility for 60 hours, Zink said.

“It’s a long, hard process. It used to be that you could get a patient into one of those patients into a bed within 24 hours. Now, it’s not uncommon for us to hold a patient in emergency department for a week,” Zink said.

Ripley said that about 20 years ago, a nurse asked her, “When are we going to do something about the youth who have attempted suicide or attempted suicide?” She said that at the time it “wasn’t really on their radar” and she didn’t know how to respond.

In that 20-year time frame, she said they documented the suicide completion rate for the Valley was twice the national average and the number one behavioral health admission for 18 and under in the emergency department was suicide ideation, attempts and self-injury. They also documented the years of “productive life lost” to suicide in the community over the last five years: 1,897 years lost related to the aforementioned subjects.

Ripley also serves on the MSRMC Board of Directors. MSHF is the original Valley Hospital association that ran Valley Hospital, building the first hospital in the area in 1948. As the populations grew, so did the need for quality treatment with an appropriate proximity. In 2006, VHA entered into an LLC partnership with an equity partner (Triad Hospitals) in 2003 in order to raise the capital to build Mat-Su Regional Medical Center (MSRMC).

“I can affirmatively state that with the Mat-Su Health Foundation board of directors and the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center board of directors have signed off on this project and the appropriations to make it happen,” Ripley said.

“I feel like I can finally look that nurse in the face and say we’re doing something about it,” Ripley said.

The general public can still submit comments to alexandria.hicks@alaska.gov. Call 907-754-3428 for additional information. Due by: 4:30 p.m. on May 7, 2018.