The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly at their last regular meeting on Oct. 8 introduced an ordinance which, if passed, will fund a project to create a Women’s Health Center at South Peninsula Hospital.
A public hearing on Ordinance 2024-19-15 will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
According to the ordinance, SPH’s Obstetrics, Gynecology and Midwifery services, through the additions of services and providers, has outgrown its two existing facilities. Obstetrics and gynecology services are currently located in the South Peninsula Obstetrics & Gynecology Clinic on Fairview Avenue. Midwifery services are currently offered at the Homer Medical Center’s West Wing Clinic, also on Fairview Avenue.
A proposal by SPH would involve all of the above services being co-located in one space in the main SPH campus at 4300 Bartlett Street. According to Borough Purchasing and Contracting Director John Hedges, the new 4,000-square-foot space is where the hospital’s physical therapy services were previously housed, under the Long Term Care Unit.
During the Finance Committee meeting prior to the regular assembly meeting on Oct. 8, Hedges told the committee that the project came to the borough as a “request for a tenant improvement clinic development,” to be managed by SPH under the terms of operating agreement between the hospital and the borough. He also said that the proposed move of women’s health services into the existing hospital facility is part of SPH’s master plan.
“The nature of the project is really just basic tenant improvements, improvements (including) demising walls, waiting areas, clinic-type accommodations — no major infrastructure changes of decommissioning equipment of anything that’s going to modify the asset,” he told the committee. “So we’re inclined to let them proceed on their own in management and development of the project under the terms of the operating agreement.”
Funding for the project in the amount of approximately $1,013,534 — $993,661 for remodeling costs and $19,873 for the required 2% administrative fee pursuant to KPB Resolution 2013-022 — would be appropriated from the South Peninsula Hospital Plant Replacement and Expansion Fund.
According to the ordinance, the South Kenai Peninsula Hospital Service Area currently has more than $6.9 million in unobligated Plant Replacement and Expansion Funds. The hospital board of directors previously adopted a resolution in July approving use of PREF funds for the women’s health center project. The service area board also previously recommended approval for using PREF funds for the project.
In a Sept. 26 memorandum to the assembly from Hedges and Borough Finance Director Brandi Harbaugh, SPH’s obstetrics, gynecology and midwifery services were called “important components of the high quality, locally coordinated care provided within the South Kenai Peninsula Hospital Service Area.”
Find the introduced ordinance and audio from the Oct. 8 meeting at kpb.legistar.com.
