HEALTHCARE SPECIAL SECTION | NEW CONSTRUCTION
for them and kind of have the ear of those state agencies and better serve more kids,” Skinner says, noting that it seems unreasonable to assume that the increase was a coincidence. With the leases expiring for the current building, which is owned by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, it was necessary to find, or build, a new facility.
A polar bear exam table is part of the new, custom-built Alaska CARES multidisciplinary facility set to be operational next year. Providence Health & Services Alaska
The Upgraded Facility Construction of the new, almost $13 million facility is funded by Providence Health & Services Alaska and many community partners that have contributed roughly half of the costs to date. “We’ve gotten some really major gifts from amazing partners, including Southcentral Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, ConocoPhillips, and others that have really stepped up to support the project,” Skinner says. “It’s really a combination of Providence taking a lead and then also asking the community and our other partners to help out. “Providence sees these services as really mission driven. They’re not services that create a lot of revenue. When you’re serving sexual assault victims, whether children or adults, those aren’t services
that are billed in a way that you can have a lot of cost recovery and justify a new space like this.” With Providence supplying the necessary up-front funds, a team was pulled together to design the new space; the team visited facilities in the Lower 48 to gather ideas and determine which of those could be best implemented in Alaska.
One of the primary adjustments to the overall design for the Alaska CARES facility is how patients flow through the building. Children no longer need to walk through staff space; instead they will only be in contact with the team that is working directly with them. “You might have a child who has come here and talked about some sort
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