Clinic outgrows its home

Robert Monteith

November 20, 2008.

The Petersburg Medical Center announced plans to expand its family practice physician clinic recently. Built in 1994, the upgrade calls for expanding into the basement area, currently shelled in, to make for more space in the crowded facility. John Bringhurst, CEO of Petersburg Medical Center, was at the city council meeting on Monday in hopes of getting the expansion added to a list of capital projects that could be funded by the state.

There, he told the council that the 14-year old facility was no longer adequate for their needs. Since it opened, the clinic has seen an 81% increase in patient volume.

“We’re trying to live out of a clinic that was built for a much smaller staff and much fewer services than what we’re trying to generate right now,” said Bringhurst. “Those of you who have had the need for services in the past little while know how congested it is in that waiting area. It’s such a small space now that we have people who, when they present, won’t even tell us what they’re coming in for because they’re afraid that the people sitting three feet away will have access to the information that they’re sharing.”

Bringhurst hopes that the new space could be used to expand the waiting area and add examination rooms, offices for doctors, and a telemedicine room.

He reported that sometimes room was so tight that they had difficulty discussing financial options with their patients due to the proximity of others.

“It’s just a situation that needs to be changed. We’ve rapidly outgrown our space. We started out with two providers. We now have four, and it’s just time to upgrade that space,” he said

The project is expected to cost around $1 million, but the hospital has already received some financial support from the Denali Commission, which has pledged nearly $500,000. Bringhurst said that they’re hoping the city will consider petitioning the state to fund the rest.

“We don’t have a huge budget at the hospital. We really kind of live hand to mouth, so for a project this size, even though it’s not huge, to us it’s very large and something that exceeds our budget. We’re interested to see if we can get some money through the capital project grants so we can finish this off,” he explained.

The plan also calls for community contributions, which the hospital has already begun to collect.

“We’re also going to do some community fund raising on the project. We’ve already started on plans to see what we can attract from businesses. We’re going to do a mail out community fund raising campaign for that,” he said.

Community support could also help secure a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation. The foundation quite often matches community contributions to capital projects. A similar plan is in place to help partially fund the library building project.

The council took no action on the matter, but will decide on its capital project list at their next meeting.