AICS clinic nears completion

After more than a year of site development and construction, a new clinic facility for Alaska Island Community Services is set to open in mid-September.

The new clinic, located on Wood Street, will practically double the number of examination rooms and nursing stations available to clients. It cost nearly $4 million to build, which included development of the previously muskeg-filled property where it now sits.

“That $4 million included site development, which was pretty extensive,” said AICS Crossings director Steve Helgeson. “The cost of the design, permitting and the actual construction is included in that amount.”

Helgeson also added that the facility was built at no cost to the taxpayers of Wrangell.

“This project did not cost Wrangell taxpayers in any way,” he said. “In fact, on an on-going basis, we’ll be paying around $51,000 a year in property taxes. In that way, we’ll actually be making a significant contribution to the tax base fund. The city made big contributions, though, with the wetland mitigation and the utilities coming up to the medical campus.”

AICS’ executive director Mark Walker said the transition would move a number of employees from their current offices on Church Street.

“We’re going to have our primary care medical clinic and a small amount of administrative support, along with counselors,” Walker said. “They will be integrated into this building from other locations they currently are at. All the people currently working at our primary care clinic, and the hospital will be coming over. A couple of counselors will be coming over as well.”

Walker also said the new building is larger and more comfortable than AICS’ current location.

“We’re moving from about 2,700 square feet to about 9,500 square feet. We have been cramped for space for a number of years and this is really going to enable us to do things, and have staff, that we could not have had before,” Walker said. “We received a grant in December 2009, and it’s been a long journey to get this built. Here we are, though, at about 95 percent complete and basically waiting to charge the building water and sewer system.”

Carly Allen, the operations manager of AICS’ Tideline clinic said the 11 examination rooms in the facility, a bump from the five rooms the clinic currently offers, will increase service while decreasing wait time.

“It’s going to change the way we can do a lot of things on the medical side,” Allen said. “We’ll be able to provide more services to more people and the staff is looking forward to it. We’ll have more exam rooms which will help get rid of our patient backlog time.”

The new clinic will also offer a community room for educational purposes and features two nursing stations. Patients who need follow-up appointments after seeing their doctors will also be able to schedule it privately.

“It’s a HIPAA-compliant way to ensure privacy for our patients,” Helgeson added. “The way we have built it will keep the incoming traffic away from the outgoing traffic. It affords some efficiency as well to the scheduling process.”

The building is also wired for data – lots of data.

“An interesting fact about the building is that we have right around 23,000 lineal feet of data cable running through it,” Helgeson added. “We don’t have the computers in our server room yet, but when we do, there will be a dedicated air conditioning system to keep them cool.”

And when the time comes for a new Wrangell Medical Center to be built on the site adjacent to the new clinic, grading and improvements will result in a level walkway between the two facilities.

“First off, we want the two buildings to be as close together as is practical,” Helgeson said. “We also want them to be at the same elevation so when you walk from one to the other, you won’t have a drop or rise to deal with. That took a lot of planning from the beginning, but the finished floor plans of both buildings are within an inch of each other.”

According to Amber Al-Haddad of the Borough’s public works department, utility work was completed at the end of June, with electrical done by Wrangell Municipal Light and Power, and water and sewer connections completed by Ketchikan Ready Mix.

Basically, the project was required to have all utilities completed by the middle of June, but a change order gave extra time to complete the water and sewer,” Al-Haddad said. “The city also received interim approval from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation on July 23 to operate the clinic’s water main and sewer.”