WASILLA -- Providence Medical Group Alaska will close its Matanuska Valley primary care location at the end of December due to declining patient numbers, a Providence spokesman said Friday.
An affiliated behavioral health office will remain open.
The facility, located between Palmer and Wasilla -- and right next to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, owned by another hospital operator -- employs 18 people and was bought by Providence 15 years ago.
Providence Matanuska Health Care providers include Drs. Jesse Atwood, Samuel Inouye, Valerie Krozel, Therese Tomasoski and Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, according to an email from spokesman Mikal Canfield. Baldwin-Johnson, a well-known family physician and child sexual-abuse expert, will continue to work with the hospital through the Anchorage-based Alaska CARES outpatient clinic, which provides sexual and physical abuse evaluations for babies and children.
Physicians and other employees can apply for open positions within the Providence network, Canfield said. Patients who want a referral or copies of their records can call 907-761-5900.
Two providers left the facility in the last two years, but that wasn't a factor in the decision to close the clinic, he said. Neither were the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
The Mat-Su "benefits from an abundance of primary care options," Canfield said in his email. "Ultimately, the community's need for primary care is met with other providers."
Providence bought the clinic in 1999. It has treated nearly 3,000 patients in the last two years.
The Providence facility is located within sight of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, operated by national hospital chain Community Health Systems. The two hospitals have sparred over turf.
Mat-Su Regional pushed for a state certificate of need after Imaging Associates of Providence in 2006 opened in close proximity to the hospital's medical center near the interchange of the Parks and Glenn highways. The imaging facility eventually obtained the order designed to avoid duplication of services in 2009.
Along with the hospital, Mat-Su Regional also operates a medical plaza with various doctors' offices.
Mat-Su Regional spokesman Alan Craft said the Providence providers are respected physicians who see patients at the hospital.
"It really is unfortunate for the community. These providers, they're on our medical staff, we know these providers," Craft said. "We certainly don't view it as a positive turn of events."