Updated: 2 Some minutes ago Published: 2 Some minutes ago

Alaska Regional Hospital officials are launching a third attempt to build a stand-alone emergency room in South Anchorage.

Last year, state officials rejected the hospital's application for the permits needed to build a $17.6 million, freestanding, 12-bed emergency department. In 2015, state officials also rejected a proposal by Alaska Regional to build stand-alone emergency departments in South Anchorage and Eagle River.

The concept of a stand-alone emergency department has long raised concerns nationally, including because of its cost and the lack of an attached hospital to treat patients with serious heart problems or patients requiring surgery or intensive care.

Alaska Regional announced this week that the hospital is proposing a scaled-down five-bed facility with diagnostic, imaging and laboratory services at Huffman Road and Old Seward Highway.

Hospital officials say the project will not only improve emergency care in South Anchorage, which has no major hospitals, but will also reduce pressure on the city's three hospitals overall.

About 20% of people who show up at the city's emergency rooms come from South Anchorage, according to Hank Grinold, vice president of operations at Alaska Regional. Regional treated about 29,000 patients in the emergency room in 2020 and about 40,000 last year, Grinold said in an interview Wednesday.

It can be “challenging” to see so many patients in the hospital's 16-bed emergency room, he said.

Grinold said the facility could also ease pressure on other hospitals by reducing the need to temporarily switch to “diversion” status when various factors can bring ambulance services to a halt until capacity is improved.

Alaska Regional Hospital, part of the for-profit HCA Healthcare Inc. chain of 182 hospitals in 20 states and the United Kingdom, is one of three major hospitals in Anchorage, along with Alaska Native Medical Center and Providence Alaska Medical Center. Alaska Regional is owned by Galen Hospital Alaska Inc., an indirect subsidiary of HCA Healthcare.

Regional has applied for a Certificate of Need, a process that state agencies use to determine whether patient demand justifies expanding existing facilities or building new ones.

State officials said this week that Alaska Regional's new Certificate of Need application will undergo a 30-day review and is not yet a publicly available document.

State health officials rejected the regional hospital's application for accreditation last year, citing concerns about the hospital's data and methodology. Some emergency physicians also objected to the stand-alone emergency department, saying it could increase costs and delay treatment.

The new proposed facility is smaller because different calculations did not include ANMC or the hospital at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which was one of the issues the state raised in its rejection last year, Grinold said. The hospital would handle all patient transport from the stand-alone emergency department to the main facility, he said.

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