PROGRESS: Q&A with Mat-Su Regional Medical Center CEO David Wallace

The year that was was a huge one for the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

The Mat-Su Valley’s biggest taxpayer and employer continued its expansion of 52 beds planned since the construction of the building in 2006, and won a major victory in the fall when it earned Certificate of Need approval from the state to add 36 beds for behavioral health and drug addiction treatment.

Along the way, the hospital got a new CEO, as in June, David Wallace came on board.

We caught up with Wallace last week to discuss what 2018 and the years to come have in store for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

When will these new surgical beds be added and how much are they needed?

We are hoping late this year or early next year, given the normal delays of construction. But the shell of the building was completed with the original construction of the building in 2006, so it will go much faster because of that.

We often have crowding issues on the medical surgery unit. There’s just more demand for inpatient then we’re able to accommodate in the 50 beds we have currently, so we end up holding more patients in our emergency department. We would also add some programs and services in specialized care to our array of services.

Certificate of Need approval was a hard-fought win? What will that mean for the hospital and the community?

We’re very excited about that. We presented to the state the need we have for a more appropriate way to treat patients, including substance abuse, psychiatric — right now we don’t have inpatient for that. Often, patients are held in the ER waiting for placement at API (Alaska Psychiatric Institute), and they have their own capacity issues. We, along with Alaska Regional, got approval to expand those services in our respective organizations.

But we’re seeing those patients now — they’re not waiting for the facility (upgrade) to have problems and issues with medical care and psychiatric care… We’re thinking that facility will be done sometime in 2019, if everything goes according to plan. If that occurs, we’ll have a place to send patients — we can care for them here. It’s a resource here to deal with overwhleming population needs occuring in southcentral Alaska.

What challenges does that expansion create?

One of challenges all face up here as we grow we are going to be faced with how to recruit staff to fill these units. We have such a great team that it is amazing to me — being relatively new here — how everyone works together to solve things, growing and adding services, adding to our capabilities.

We also have a lot of questions with reimbursement issues and state financial challenges and what that will mean for government payers. I like our chances of being able to succeed and maneuver and adapt to changes that await.

The future looks very bright… I come to work every day and see that everybody is very excited about the expansion. As the valley grows, we work toward larger array of services we can offer.

How do you plan for the future with health care costs in Alaska being so erratic?

I think it’s a bit of a challenge here. The building, the equipment the staff — everything seems to be a little more costly to try and accomplish. There’s also the added pressure from the different care groups to cut our costs, and meanwhile, inflation is hitting us as well.

What we’re cointing on is that everybody works together for long-term soluctions to reimbursement challenges so the state can be healthy and providers can be healthy throughout the state. We’re happy to be involved in that.

What are your biggest opportunities in the near future?

Brining in new providers. Kelly Powers, for example, is a fantastic interventional radiologist. She brings an array of expertise in imaging and radiology that adds to the team we already have. She’s a very dynamic, outgoing, very patient-focused physician who’s originally from the valley.

We’re working on expanding our cardiology services… there’s some providers we’re in the final stages of negotiating agreements with there and we’ll announce that soon.

When we meet with our providers, I’m really blown away at the caliber of medical staff we have in all categories.

Where do you see the most room for improvement?

Definitely behavioral health is the biggest hole. We don’t have a psychiatrist on staff, but we’re working on ways to bridge that gap. This year we’re going to be adding behavioral health specialists with the ability to grow into our new unit. In the meantime, we’re collaborating with a wide variety of folks at API and the state… But, far and away, the biggest challenge is in behavioral health — which is a crisis.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your first 8 months as CEO at Mat-Su Regional?

I’m pretty hard on myself, but I’d probably say we’ve had an ‘8’ year. There’s a lot of things that are just learning curve — things I have to learn — the employees, the medical staff, the community leaders to tap into and work collaboratively with — it takes a little while to learn all that, but everyone has been so helpful in bringing me up to speed.

This is my dream job. I’d been watching the Mat-Su Valley for about seven years now since I first visited and I didn’t know my dream job would come available. I’m very anxious to do a good job and continue to watch things grow. This is an exciting opportunity.