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The Wrangell Medical Center board unanimously elected Terri Henson to the board presidency Oct. 16, replacing Woody Wilson. Board members elected Bernie Massin vice president, Cori Robinson as secretary and Barb Conine as treasurer. The board re-organization meeting took place in the wake of the Oct. 1 election, in which Henson and Massin were re-elected to the board without opposition. Wilson served as board president from Aug. 29 and was the first medical center board president after a recall election removed six board members. Wilson lead...
Local residents ran, heard speakers, and dined on soup to celebrate Alaska Day Friday and Saturday. The state holiday, observed Oct. 18 every year, commemorates the day Russian officials signed the territory of Alaska over to American officials at Sitka in 1867. The day features prominent displays of the Alaska state flag, and in at least one case a big fur hat. The hat in question belonged to Bruce Jamieson, who won the Alaska costume competition at the Alaska Day run Saturday, and the...
For Rhonda Christian, life as a breast cancer survivor is filled with moments of small horror. She remembers the moment in March when tests at Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center revealed what might be a small mass, amid planning for her and husband Ernie’s honeymoon in Jamaica. There was the moment when her husband insisted on getting it checked out in Seattle, on a more accurate, updated machine. And then there was the moment when she woke up from anesthesia and looked down, and her breast was gone. “I don’t know how to describe it,” she said. “The...
Widely reported technical glitches and uncertainty over how a new influx of insured patients would affect the local medical business greeted the Alaska version of the Federal government’s new health insurance exchange program. Users seeking to enroll in the exchange via the Federal government website www.healthcare.gov were allowed to create an account, however, the transition from the Federal site to the State-specific site Enroll Alaska were greeted with a simple page reading “Downstream Error” most of the weekend. The site was tempo...
The Wrangell hospital board voted 4-0 Sept. 18 to pursue a Level IV trauma certification for the Wrangell Medical Center. The certification would establish the medical center as a primary care giver for traumatic injuries, meaning life-saving care could be available to trauma victims immediately, according to the American College of Surgeons and hospital officials. For victims themselves, it could mean the difference between flying to Wrangell and having to make the sometimes-perilous trip to Ketchikan instead. That issue was on the mind of...
Name: Ernie Christian Age: 48 Occupation: Manager, Ottesen’s Inc. What background or experience do you have that qualifies you to be an Assembly member? I have previously served on boards, committees, councils, and assembly. I am currently serving as Vice-Mayor on the City and Borough of Wrangell assembly and Vice-President on the Wrangell Cooperative Association board. I understand budgets and ask questions to make sure that I am accountable to the electorate. Why are you running for the A...
Name: Terri Henson Age: None given Occupation: Civic Center Director/City of Wrangell What is your previous experience on boards or other relevant experience that would qualify you as a member of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors? During the time I’ve lived in Wrangell I’ve been active in various clubs and organizations. I have experience sitting on a board and I have experience answering to them. I’ve been an active planning and zoning commissioner for the last 10 years or so, c...
PETERSBURG — Borough Assembly and Petersburg Medical Center hospital board members discussed the financial state of the hospital and funding assistance for capital projects from the borough last Thursday morning. The discussion was also directed at how the public will perceive a potential tax levy to help fund a hospital that has remained financially independent of the city, now the borough, throughout its existence. “The public has a healthy skepticism on the borough’s spending habits,” assembly member John Hoag said. Hoag referenced high co...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly approved a controversial $100,000 reimbursement during its August 27 meeting after services had been rendered. The reimbursement goes to Alaska Island Community Services to offset expenses incurred after it relocated its clinic to a new building site. Wrangell’s previous borough manager Timothy Rooney negotiated with AICS in 2009 to relocate its clinic, for the sake of convenience, next to where the Wrangell Medical Center would build its new facility—the Alpine site. In an e-mail sent to the assembly in 2011, Roon...
The Alaska State Department of Social and Health Services has named Alaska Island Community Services physician Greg Salard to the Alaska Medicaid Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. He is also a member of the Alaska Medicaid Drug Utilization Review Committee, beginning his three-year term late last year. Salard, who is currently on vacation in the Lower-48, could not be reached for comment. However, in a 2012 interview, he said he volunteered for the spot on the committees in order to assist...
Former Wrangell Medical Center CEO Noel Rea has accepted a position as the head of Sitka’s Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium hospital. In a newsletter to SEARHC members and employees, Charles Clement, the organization’s CEO, said Rea was taking over as the interim administrator of SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe’s operation. “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the resignation of our friend and colleague, Dr. Marty Grasmeder, Hospital Administrator/Medical Director of the SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital. His last day will be at the end of...
For more than two decades Wrangell Medical Center Chief Financial Officer Garth Hamblin has served the healthcare community in Alaska and the Lower 48. Now, he’ll get to serve a higher power – in paradise. Hamblin, who is a past Stake President in the Juneau Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been called, along with his wife Sandy, to serve the church’s ministry in the Kingdom of Tonga beginning next month. As CFO, Hamblin took the place of longtime department head Oli...
Physician Lynn Prysunka has stepped down as Chief of Staff at Wrangell Medical Center – a move that will see Dr. Greg Salard step into the position. On Monday, July 8, Dr. Prysunka offered her resignation after serving in that role for several years, according to WMC CEO Marla Sanger. “Dr. Greg Salard agreed to assume these duties effective immediately,” Sanger said. “WMC greatly appreciates all of our physicians and wishes to acknowledge in particular the highly professional and skillful leadership that Dr. Prysunka has provided to WMC in...
The Nolan Center is currently undergoing work to beautify and improve the look and feel of the facility, according to Borough Manager Tim Rooney. The majority of the work is on the waterside green space. “Staff hopes to have the grass planted soon,” Rooney stated. “This area will become ‘Pet Free’ in order to have an area where citizens and visitors can sit on the grass. There has been a new picnic table donated by the Murkowski family that will be installed under the covered area. According...
Margaret Rose Seimears, 85, passed away at the Wrangell Medical Center on June 30, 2013. A Celebration of Life will be planned for a later date. A full obituary will follow....
The Borough Assembly officially accepted the resignation of Borough Manager Tim Rooney during their June 25 regular meeting and cleared the path for Borough Clerk Kim Flores to advertise the position both statewide and nationally. After a unanimous vote accepting the resignation, Assembly member Christie Jamieson spoke about her feelings on the tenure of Rooney as the administrative head during the past three-and-a-half years. “I would like to thank Tim for all of his hard work and efforts,” Jam...
A seventeen year-old girl was fatally injured when an ATV crashed on Thursday afternoon at Lab Bay, near Port Protection just before 5 p.m. An Alaska State Trooper dispatch released on Friday states that Paulette James of Port Protection was the victim in the incident and “had sustained fatal injuries while operating a 'dune buggy' style ATV.” Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Emergency Medical Services from Klawock responded to the scene and began an investigation. The ini...
Wrangell Medical Center interim CEO Marla Sanger was ebullient about new technology being instituted at the hospital in her most recent report to the WMC Board of Directors at their June 19 meeting at the Nolan Center. Sanger’s report highlighted her use of weekly updates to the board – and how new technology is helping save money at the facility. “Nearly every weekly update mentions an electronic medical record ‘go live’ or new computer module or some other change that staff and physician...
The City and Borough of Wrangell has received a payment of $250,000 in the settlement with former Wrangell Medical Center DEO Noel Rea – except Rea didn’t make the payment. The payment, in fact, came from the insurance company that indemnifies WMC and its officers, the Chubb Group Insurance. Borough Manager Tim Rooney said the checks, which were drafted in March, were received by city attorney Bob Blasco and forwarded to City Hall. “The money was deposited and now, any money that we spent on le...
Wrangell not only has a new medical clinic, but a brand new physician added to the staff of the Alaska Island Community Services location on Wood Street. Dr. Laura Dooley, who has been affiliated with Bartlett Regional Medical Center and Southeast Regional Health Consortium, began work this week and will be seeing patients at the new facility. Dooley, who just arrived in town with her husband, said she has been here in the past during her travels throughout the state. “It’s good to be here in...
A former administrator at Wrangell Medical Center has been named as the new head of Providence Valdez Medical Center. Officials with Providence Health and Services said last week that Barbara Bigelow will begin her new job at the hospital on Aug. 5. She was named as the interim administrator at WMC after the departure of Kendall Sawa, who announced in October his desire to make a move to Washington State. Sawa replaced former CEO Noel Rea after the former WMC Board of Directors terminated him....
After more than a year of planning, design and construction, the brand new Alaska Island Community Services clinic held an open house to show off the multi-million dollar building, its technological innovations and ways its new floor plan would assist clients in the medical and counseling process. The new facility, located on Wood Street, opened on June 5 and has nearly doubled the number of examination rooms available to patients. It cost nearly $4 million to build and is now prepared to offer...
The jury trial of former resident Steve Marshall for felony charges related to an alleged 2011 sexual assault began this week in Wrangell’s First District Court. Marshall, 54, was arrested on Dec. 7, 2011 at his residence in the Bloom Trailer Court after police responded to an argument between Marshall and his former girlfriend, Sonja Turner. Court documents allege that Marshall, who was indicted by a grand jury on seven charges, including sexual assault and assault in the first degree, is a...
With eight words – and the stroke of a pen – Superior Court Judge William B. Carey dismissed the lawsuit against former Wrangell Medical Center CEO Noel Rea and six former members of the WMC Board of Directors that were recalled last year, along with a counterclaim brought by the defendants. “The complaint and counter-claim are dismissed with prejudice,” Carey wrote in his April 29 order. The lawsuit stemmed from the actions of the former board in their firing of Rea on June 20, during their las...
