IFHS

Unalaska’s health clinic has been awarded funding to expand its facility on the island. The U.S. Department of Treasury will give Iliuliuk Family and Health Services $20 million to expand and renovate its building, the clinic announced Thursday.

Three top healthcare providers at Unalaska’s clinic recently left the island, but they assure patients that high-quality care will continue during the transition.

Iliuliuk Family and Health Services has extended its weekday closing hours to 9 p.m. For years, the island’s largest healthcare provider has closed at 6 p.m., which limited service options for community members. Clinic staff say new hours will give community members greater access to services.

Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic has a new interim chief operator. Jennifer Heller is a certified nurse midwife. She’s been working in healthcare for more than two decades and has been employed at IFHS as a nurse midwife and quality improvement coordinator since 2019. Now, she’s the second interim CEO the island’s clinic has hired since December.

Five people were medevaced out of Unalaska Sunday on a Coast Guard C130. “In truth, it wasn't that unique of a situation, except the weather compounded what we deal with on a daily basis,” said Jennifer Heller, interim director of operations and a certified nurse midwife at the island’s Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic.

Will Rodgers has stepped down from his position as interim CEO at Unalaska’s main clinic. That leaves Iliuliuk Family and Health Services once again without a chief executive. Rodgers returned to the island’s clinic in December after Melanee Tiura, the previous CEO, resigned. She took a position with Providence Medical Center in Valdez.

Unalaska is once again handing out at-home coronavirus test kits, according to local health officials. The island received its first supply earlier this month, but ran out less than 24 hours after offering them to the public. Iliuliuk Family and Health Services received 400 kits from the state Tuesday, each with two tests per box, said Jennifer Heller, a certified nurse midwife with the clinic.

Unalaska’s Dr. Murray Buttner has been nationally recognized for his work bringing emergency training to rural Alaska communities.Buttner, a family medicine doctor and co-medical director of the island’s Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic, was named a 2021 Community Star by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health. The award went to one health care provider in each U.S. state.

Iliuliuk Family and Health Services’ clinic director is stepping down after more than two years at the helm of the Unalaska clinic.Melanee Tiura will be taking a job as an administrator with Providence Medical Center in Valdez. Her last day at IFHS is Dec. 10.

The Unalaska City Council voted Tuesday to keep the island’s current mask mandate in place.Over the past month, the city has experienced its largest surge of community-acquired COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and city councilors remain cautious as hospitals in Anchorage near capacity.