Talkeetna’s Sunshine health center celebrates 30 years

TALKEETNA — It has been called the “little clinic that could,” and after 30 years of treating patients in the Upper Susitna Valley, that sentiment is evident at the Sunshine Community Health Center.

From the early days of closets used for exam rooms and X-rays developed and viewed in a restroom to its current and modern 12,000-square-foot facility on the Talkeetna Spur Road, the Sunshine health center has come a long way. Along with primary medical care, today’s clinic offerings range from urgent care to dental services, physical therapy, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment, all bolstered by the Sunshine Transit System. Willow and Trapper Creek also now have satellite branches of the health center.

“I think the people that have worked here and the generations of patients and community members have a lot to be proud of,” said Shelis Jorgensen, the center’s current medical director and one of its early nurse practitioners. “So much has happened in that time.”

The early days

Talk to those who know the clinic’s history and one name comes up time after time: Jessica Stevens, the driving force behind keeping the clinic alive in its early days. Stevens was killed in a Parks Highway car crash in June 2007.

Her story was one of a dynamo of determination in turning the single-provider clinic with a shoestring budget into a federally-qualified health center that had some 10,000 patient encounters in 2015. The clinic recently expanded its hours to be open six days a week

The clinic’s origins started small. A group of Talkeetna and Trapper Creek residents — led by then-EMT Gail Saxowsky — approached the state for funding in 1987 and were given an Alaska Community Health Facilities grant to start what was considered a “mid-level” clinic. According to a clinic history written in part by Stevens, the group bought a trailer and hired what would be a series of part-time clinicians. Open sporadically and struggling financially, it was forced to close in 1992 when its nurse practitioner left and the state cut its funding.

Enter Stevens, then a physician’s assistant, who interviewed for the medical director’s position in 1993.

“The thought of a quiet, little clinic with only a few patients per day sounded mighty attractive to me,” Stevens wrote in a 2005 history of the clinic. “As I sat in a second interview with approximately 16 community members, I felt the power of commitment and will from the people in the room. As I accepted the position, I had little idea of what the bank account held or the uphill struggle that stretched ahead of us.”

Stevens’ first patient? A resident with a gash from a chainsaw.

“Donned in a black garbage bag with plastic sacks on my feet, I used expired anesthetic and a miscellaneous assortment of cleaning solutions and sutures to clean and repair his wound. That was only the beginning…” she wrote.

In the early years, the facility was designated as a Rural Health Clinic, which allowed it to received Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Federal rural health outreach funding came in 1996, which helped in hiring more people and the ability to offer behavioral health services.

Longtime Valley physician Dr. Barbara Doty was Stevens’ consulting physician for many years. She said Stevens was a force.

“She was very dynamic and an excellent clinician. She always put the people of Talkeetna first,” Doty said. “She listened to what the residents wanted for the future of the clinic, whether it be dental or Head Start.”

The Jessica Stevens Foundation was created in 2008 in her memory, and has endowed more than $250,000 to support local nonprofit groups’ efforts to build “healthy communities in the northern Susitna Valley,” according to the foundation’s webpage.

Doty said the Talkeetna facility also was probably one of the first in the state to integrate primary care and behavioral health.

“She was very much a visionary, and very good at being able to bring together the funding pieces and the agencies needed,” to make things work, Doty said, adding that the center has had the benefit of some supportive and active Talkeetna and Upper Susitna region residents.

“Talkeetna has a special spirit,” Doty said.

More funding, more growth

A $2.5 million Rural Development grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2001 kick-started a fundraising campaign for a new building, which debuted in 2004.

Jorgenson first came to the clinic in 1999. She said the cramped quarters in the early days are a far cry from today’s modern facility.

“It is hard to imagine that it has been 30 years — it has been a crazy ride,” she said. “From the early little blue building, which wasn’t even the smallest, to what we have now is amazing. We had X-ray in the bathroom, we had the lunchroom and kitchen in our lab.”

Even now, managers are feeling squeezed for space. Executive director Melody West said the center has purchased 33 acres adjacent to its existing property at Mile 4.4 of the Talkeetna Spur with an eye toward future expansion.

“We are also in the process of finalizing the purchase of some property near Fish Creek,” West said, “that will allow us to eventually move some administrative staff and transit because it has some warehouse space to get the vans out of the weather.”

Going forward, both West and Jorgenson said a future needs assessment was in the works.

“We are partnering with the Mat-Su Health Foundation with regard to their community needs assessment,” Jorgensen said, “and the next steps for the clinic will most like be based on what comes out of that data. We are trying to look at more specialty care and where we can partner with other organizations so that people don’t have to travel or those that can’t travel will be able to access things like cardiology.”

West said the growth in services has been marked, as has the growth in the transit system, which topped 12,000 rides in the Trapper Creek, Talkeetna and Willow service area in 2015.

“We have received a lot of grants in the last couple years to bring in more services and more providers,” she said, “so we are kind of catching our breath right now.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com