SEARHC serves Southeast.

• Author: Morphet, Tom
• Position: Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium

Innovative management plus modern and traditional healing methods enable Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to bring improved health care to Panhandle villages. At the same time, the agency is setting a new standard for tribal health care in Alaska.

The decision by tribal governments in 20 Native communities in Alaska's southeast Panhandle to enter a compact with Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) for health service beginning in 1995 didn't come as a big surprise.

"SEARHC has a long history of successfully operating what is essentially an HMO (health maintenance organization). We've been able to deliver all contracted service while staying within budget," says Ken Brewer, SEARHC's vice president of finance.

In its 20 years as a contractor under the Indian Health Service (IHS), SEARHC has grown from a health-aide program of four workers to the second largest of the state's six major tribal health corporations. It has 610 employees (430 full-time) and an annual budget of $36 million. Revenues come from the IHS (80 percent) and the rest from Medicare, Medicaid, state grants and private insurance.

SEARHC serves the approximately 12,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimpshian people of Southeast. Besides operating the 80-bed Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka and clinics in Juneau and Ketchikan, the non-profit agency offers programs ranging from alcohol prevention to water-plant operator training.

Recent laurels include Mt. Edgecumbe's rating of "accreditation with commendation" by the Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a rank achieved by only 6 percent of hospitals nationwide. The Juneau medical and dental clinic was also awarded the rating, the first clinic in Alaska to earn a perfect score in all areas of review.

Hometown Health Care

But much of SEARHC's success has been away from the hospital and clinics of the region's bigger cities. Previously, the bulk of IHS efforts in Southeast went toward treatment at Mt. Edgecumbe. As it gradually took over IHS programs, SEARHC spread efforts more evenly to the people of Southeast's towns and villages, and moved the focus of Native health away from treatment and toward education and prevention.

That philosophy has helped foster team spirit among the representatives of the 20 communities that make up the SEARHC board, says consortium president Ethel Lund. "The board has been able to look at (health care) from a regional perspective. They can look around and help...