Construction ongoing for health care facilities: meeting health care needs for a growing and aging population.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA

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When it comes to the hospital and health care facility construction, expansion and rebuilding is evident in Anchorage, Eagle River and the Mat-Su Valley, the cause and effect for this needed growth is similar to "the leg bone's connected to the thigh bone" theory: new patients require additional needs, which means increased staffing, services and equipment, which points to the need for more space.

The growing population in Southcentral, compounded by an immigration of residents from rural communities and an aging population with growing needs for different services, are major contributing factors to the need for more construction, said Pat Carr, health program manager for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) planning and systems development division.

Between 2000 and 2007, the largest population increases in the state occurred in the Municipality of Anchorage (23,450), which includes Girdwood and Eagle River, and the Mat-Su Borough (20,734), together accounting for 76.5 percent of the state's overall growth. The increases were due to a mix of natural factors: the birth rate is higher than the death rate, and there is immigration from other parts of Alaska. At the same time, as baby boomers begin to retire, the 65-plus population is expected to more than triple between 2007 and 2030, bumping this group from more than 45,000 to about 134,000. Because Alaska has historically had a relatively small old-age population, this shift will play a major role in shaping the state and Southcentral's future in providing health care, requiring new infrastructure to prepare for the change.

MOMENTUM, MOMENTUM

At the same time, warp-speed changes in health care technology and increasing administrative requirements are boosting the demand for services and equipment. The number of new medical procedures coming online continues to grow as more remedies are found and consumer choices are present for health problems. Another factor associated with the statewide and regional demand for more health care facilities is "import substitution"--an increasing share of the health care needs formerly taken care of outside of the state are now fulfilled instate. All this adds up to the need for more health care facilities, ranging from private practice offices and community clinics to large urban hospitals that house hundreds of employees and see thousands of patients every year.

"As the facilities in Alaska--particularly in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley--have been upgraded, they have been able to offer more comprehensive services and recruit more specialists, which has increased demand for specialty services and increased the expectation that facilities will be able to provide more specialized care," Carr says. Looking ahead, she adds, it is certain that Anchorage and the surrounding areas will also...