Rural Health

Unalaska's community health center is preparing to start construction on an expansion that could help secure emergency care funding.

The board promoted Dawn Johnson, the former clinical services director, to chief operating officer and interim CEO.

King Cove often makes headlines for its long-fought battle over a proposed road that would connect it to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay. The remote Aleutian community says the road is key to saving lives because medevacs have a hard time landing on the small, gravel airstrip. With such limited healthcare, it’s a big deal when the community gets new medical equipment. And when they get something big, like the new ambulance that arrived in August, that can be cause for celebration.

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.

The collapse of the Bering Sea crab fisheries has put St. Paul Island at risk of losing some of its essential services.The city’s economy is about 90% dependent on the harvest of snow crab, which closed for the first time in the fishery’s history in October. Without Bering Sea snow crab or Bristol Bay red king crab — which has been closed since 2021 — the City of St. Paul is estimating a roughly $2.7 million hit.In light of those anticipated losses, St. Paul’s city government declared a cultural, economic and social emergency in late October, following the fishery closures, and subsequently implemented budgetary cuts, hiring freezes and other measures.Now, the Pribilof Island community faces the loss of its emergency medical 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.

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.

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