Since the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) closed its Medicare-certified home health department in Sitka last September, many Sitkans have publicly opposed the change – through a petition with over 600 signatures and a well-attended listening session in November, which SEARHC did not attend. This week, for the first time since the closure, community members shared feedback directly with SEARHC administrators. That feedback is unlikely to bring the department back.
Cindy Litman was one of 15 Sitkans who testified at Wednesday’s meeting of the Community Health Council, which advises SEARHC on how to best serve the Sitka community.
“I’m grieved that SEARHC closed its Medicare-certified home health office,” Litman said to the virtual room of about 60 people, placing a photo of her late husband on the Zoom screen. “My husband, Tony Guevin, was the beneficiary of Medicare-certified home health services from 2017 until his death in 2019. It’s only through the unique skills and services of home health that we were able to remain in Sitka, and that Tony was able to stay at home for the last two years of his life.”
Nearly all of the testimony focused on the closure of Sitka’s Medicare-certified home health department last fall. While SEARHC has maintained that the new “home-based care” program offers equivalent services, Litman — and many others testifying — said the programs are not the same.
“I really don’t know whether SEARHC really doesn’t understand the difference between Medicare-certified home health and the healthcare they’re offering through the clinic, or if they really are deliberately being untruthful,” Litman said.
Wednesday’s meeting represented the community’s annual opportunity to share feedback directly with SEARHC. That meeting is written into the charter developed when SEARHC acquired Sitka Community Hospital in 2019, and requires that “a portion of the Council meeting is open to the general public for its input.”
Some community members felt that the meeting’s structure, which was virtual and limited testimony to 15 Sitkans for three minutes each, didn’t fulfill the spirit of that requirement. In her testimony, Krisanne Rice said that the Zoom format, specifically, prevented some Sitkans from attending.
“I’m on a Zoom meeting on an iPhone sitting by myself while Jim’s upstairs, and I’m person number 14 out of 15, reading my notes to provide testimony to you about services in Sitka,” Rice said. “Your customers are restricted to a once-a-year opportunity to share concerns. I have the technology and some of the skills to Zoom, but I know people in Sitka who don’t, and thus you’ve eliminated them.”
Other audience members took to the chat after the Council spent nearly half an hour responding to the first three-minute testimony. Community member Lisa Busch wrote, “If this is the only time during the whole year that (only 15 members of) the public has to speak it might be best for the committee to listen and save time for the public comment.” A few minutes later, the chat was disabled, and another community member asked organizers to re-open the chat.
Over the course of the two-hour meeting, community members echoed many of the sentiments expressed at the November forum – that home health had provided critically important services to their families, and that the new program would not fill the same niche.
In spite of ongoing public pressure, SEARHC has shown no interest in revisiting its decision. Council member Susan Padilla, who was appointed to the council in the same meeting, asked SEARHC Chief Medical Officer Elliot Bruhl whether reinstating the home health department was on the table, given community input.
“You know, with some of the communications, and all of the signatures and everything, has any thought been given to that to say, maybe the community really wants a home health department?” Padilla asked.
Bruhl’s response was clear. “Not at this time.”
Disclosure: KCAW employee Fred Olsen, Jr. is a member of the Sitka Community Health Council.
