Alaska Regional Hospital -- one of three major Anchorage hospitals -- is planning to extend its reach by building two stand-alone emergency rooms.
The facilities will be open 24 hours a day all week and work just like Alaska Regional's in-house emergency room at its main campus on DeBarr Road.
Alaska Regional Hospital has posted a certificate of public need with the state, a requirement for building new health facilities.
Each ER will have imaging equipment, labs, OB/GYN and pediatric care capabilities. One is planned in South Anchorage, off Klatt Road and C Street, and another in Eagle River near the Old Glenn Highway. The idea is to spread emergency care coverage throughout Anchorage's sprawling suburbs.
Three hospitals, and many more urgent-care centers, already serve the Anchorage area. But with an area of 1,961 square miles, Alaska's largest city can take time to navigate. Alaska Regional estimates that a drive or ambulance trip to a hospital can take as long as 20 minutes from either proposed stand-alone ER location. That time could come at a cost for patients in severe distress.
"Heart attacks, strokes, respiratory distress, head injuries, abdominal pain -- you want to have an immediate assessment of what the treatment should be and get it started quickly," said Alaska Regional Hospital CEO Julie Taylor.
Taylor said the concept of stand-alone emergency rooms -- called FSED, for free-standing emergency departments -- has been put to good use in the Lower 48 over the past 10 years. If approved, Alaska Regional's pair would be the first in the state.
Each location would contain up to eight treatment rooms and will constantly be staffed with board-certified emergency-room doctors and nurses. Taylor said the proposed FSEDs should not be confused with urgent-care centers.
"It is open 24 hours per day, every day of the year, and unlike an urgent-care center, we have to accept every patient, regardless of their condition or ability to pay," Taylor said.
Taylor said there are other practical reasons to spread out her hospital's emergency treatment options.
Currently, all three major Anchorage hospitals -- Alaska Regional, Providence Alaska Medical Center and the Alaska Native Medical Center -- are within about a 2-mile radius.
"If there were a natural disaster and something happened to that spot, where would the access be?" Taylor said.
Taylor said adding FSEDs in Anchorage will reduce traffic into and out of the U-Med district. It would also move emergency treatment to areas with large populations outside of central Anchorage.
"There are about 90,000 people in South Anchorage, and in Eagle River there are about 40,000 to 50,000 people, so you have enough mass of people that will use it," Taylor said.
She said the cost of building both facilities will be about $29 million, and if they're approved by the state this winter, construction could begin in summer. Taylor said Alaska Regional is hoping to open both facilities by the summer of 2016.