State Health Commissioner Valerie Davidson is granting Providence Hospital in Anchorage permission to build eight new emergency room beds. That’s fewer than the hospital was hoping for. Providence submitted plans to build 14 new rooms, 10 that would have focused on pediatric patients.
Commissioner Davidson denied Alaska’s Regional Hospital’s proposal to build two freestanding emergency rooms in South Anchorage and Eagle River. They would have been the first freestanding ERs in the state.
In Alaska, hospitals need approval from the state to build big new projects. The idea is to prevent hospitals from building too many facilities and then passing the cost onto consumers. The state had decided Anchorage could support 13 new emergency room beds between now and 2022.
This story is part of a reporting partnership between APRN, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
Annie Feidt is the broadcast managing editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at afeidt@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Annie here.
