Central Peninsula Hospital was up year-over-year in nearly two dozen key statistics, including births, outpatient visits, emergency room visits, billed procedures and pharmacy doses dispensed. That’s according to an update to the Soldotna City Council by Central Peninsula Hospital CEO Shaun Keef on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
Those statistics come from a review of CPH’s operations last fiscal year, running from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. This most recent year was “a record-breaking year,” up from last year, also “a record-breaking year.”
“We’ve hit three record-breaking years in a row, statistically at the hospital,” Keef said. “It’s been pretty incredible.”
That increased demand comes with “growing pains and some stress fractures,” Keef said. The hospital is, he said, the largest employer on the peninsula at 1,300 people. They’re working on a master plan to look at the next five to 10 years to decide how the hospital needs to grow to meet that need and “care for our community.”
Keef presented 23 statistics about hospital services provided last year. Of those, only acute care patient days was not up year-over-year. In fiscal year 2024, there were around 11,000 acute care patient days, down nearly 400 from fiscal year 2023. But, Keef said that swing bed days, other patient beds that are occupied by patients and staffed by the hospital, were up nearly 500.
The hospital in the last year also saw 17,000 emergency room visits, 12,000 family practice clinic visits and 8,000 urgent care visits on the way to 187,000 total outpatient visits. That’s up nearly 9,000 visits from the year prior.
Keef spotlighted the urgent care facility, located near Walmart in Kenai, as seeing an increase of more than 1,000 visits year over year from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024. That facility is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, he said, and responds to needs that come outside of working hours.
In addition to sharing the statistics, Keef discussed the hospital’s last community needs assessment, undertaken in 2022. Findings said that mental health and substance abuse care were the top two identified needs, followed by concerns for physical activity, violence, heart disease, access to health care, disability and cancer.
Whenever the hospital completes a needs assessment, Keef said, they then focus on addressing those findings. Assessments are completed every three years, so when the next assessment is performed in fall 2025, they’ll see how things are going.
In 2013, Keef said, cancer treatment was found to be the number one need. Since then, the hospital has erected the River Tower and opened Central Peninsula Oncology. Now cancer is in the eighth and last spot.
“I’m hoping that in 2025 we’ll see cancer come completely off of there,” Keef said. “We’ll be able to replace it with other items that the community views as important.”
In response to the 2022 assessment, CPH has brought on a psychiatrist and opened a wellness clinic; added beds to address substance abuse issues; and is developing a pilot project to send mental health specialists to work with law enforcement and emergency medical services. They also debuted “Walk with a Doc,” where a physician goes out for a community walk to answer attendee questions. Next year, the hospital will welcome the first residents for what Keef said is the first and only internal medicine residency program in the nation.
Keef said the hospital has been shielded from some of the staffing challenges facing other institutions in health care because people want to live and work on the peninsula. He said that the hospital is fortunate both to receive “phenomenal” candidates and to keep talent over time.
“We’ve had to make really good decisions and screen candidates very well to make sure that we’re getting top talent coming into our community — individuals that want to stay,” he said.
In numbers updated on Aug. 28, “as of this morning,” Keef said the hospital had only 44 travelers among its staff.
“I would dare to say that, when you look at that percentage, it’s much lower than what you’re seeing in the Lower 48.”
A full recording of the presentation can be found at “City of Soldotna” on YouTube.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
