Healthcare facilities grow in Alaska: expansions, remodels, and new construction.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

Hundreds of millions of dollars in construction spending is being invested in healthcare facilities around the state, most of it in Anchorage and the Mat-Su, though a new dental facility was recently completed in Dillingham.

Dillingham Home to New Dental Facility

Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation, or BBAHC, in September opened doors to a new, state-of-the-art dental health facility and administrative complex in Dillingham. The facility is located on the grounds of the Kanakanak Hospital and will serve the region.

The dental clinic project can be attributed to BBAHC Chief Operating Officer Lecia Scotford, MD, as well as her talented projects department team. The project took two years from beginning to end. The business plan was created during the summer of 2014 and was approved that fall. The team broke ground in June 2015. The building was completed and operational in September 2016.

The building design was a partnership between BBAHC, architectural firm Livingston Sloan, and its engineering consultant teams as well as initial assistance from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

The 15,531-square-foot, two-story building meets the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, meaning it uses less water and energy in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The building insulation exceeds design requirements for the area and is complete with energy efficient windows.

The foundation is built to withstand a 9.2-magnitude earthquake with minimal damage.

The first floor is entirely for dental services. The clinic is ultramodern, complete with high-tech equipment and twelve brand new operatories, up from seven chairs that were previously divided between the dental annex and an extra room in the Kanakanak Hospital.

The second floor is occupied by administrative support staff, including a business office, finance department, and an area for medical records.

Alaska Regional Hospital Renovation

Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage got a $70 million capital grant from HCA, its parent company, in 2014. The money paid for a complete facelift for the seven-floor, nearly 330,000-square-foot building.

Tina Miller, chief operating officer at Alaska Regional, says no beds were added to the facility during this upgrade, but the facility will feel refreshed, have more efficient features such as new boilers and generators, and has new equipment to better serve its customers.

Much of the money went toward new boilers, air-handling units, three generators, and a twenty-thousand-gallon fuel tank, Miller says, "so we have redundancy in the case of an emergency or power outage."

Making infrastructure repairs to a busy hospital is a challenge, she says, but it was necessary both to be compatible with new industry standards for backup power and because some of the machinery was outdated and in need of replacement.

"We often refer to it as making repairs on your car while it's going down the road--and still maintaining the safety of those individuals riding in the vehicles," she says.

Power must be switched over to test generators, which is possibly the most difficult aspect of the construction job, considering many patients are on respirators or monitors that are connected to power. Miller says employees and administration pick a time of day that is well staffed and generally calm to test or connect the new equipment.

In addition to the infrastructure, Alaska Regional made significant upgrades to its Women's unit, which includes the labor...