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The Borough Assembly created a list of its top three capital project priorities for the 2022 fiscal year at their meeting on Monday that could potentially be funded by the federal government. In no particular order, the Borough Assembly chose a $16.2 million priority that would finalize the planning for a new Petersburg Medical Center facility, a project that would add ramps to South Boat Harbor totaling $1.7 million and the expansion and improvement of remote access facilities for a total of...
Petersburg's COVID-19 case count remained at 10 on Wednesday, as no new cases of the virus were reported and no infected residents were released from isolation, according to a joint press release for the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Wednesday was the second day in a row that Petersburg had an active case count of 10. In the past week, Petersburg has reported five new cases of COVID-19, but 12 infected residents were released from isolation in that same timeframe. The drop...
State health officials held a town hall meeting via Zoom on Wednesday to give an overview of the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Petersburg and answer any questions. Since Feb. 18, Petersburg has reported new cases of COVID-19 nearly every single day, while maintaining an active case count. Since the outbreak peaked at 68 cases on March 3, Petersburg has seen a steady decrease in cases. As of Tuesday, Petersburg has recorded 94 cases of the virus since Feb. 18. State health officials were able to...
About 200 patients at Petersburg Medical Center may have had their medical records viewed inappropriately in a data breach, said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter in a prepared statement on KFSK on March 4. PMC first became aware of the data breach when an employee told the hospital's compliance officer that another employee may be committing curiosity lookups. PMC employees are only allowed to look up a patient's medical record when their job requires them to do so, said Hofstetter. The hospital...
Heartfelt thank you To the Editor: I would like to thank everyone for sending me their prayers and well-wishes during my recent health problems. I feel so fortunate and grateful to have so many people thinking of me. Thank you also to the wonderful doctors and nurses that took care of me during my stay at PMC, to the P.P.D. first responder, the Volunteer E.M.S. crew and to the crew of the medivac transport. Last but not least thank you to my wife and my family who stood by me through the entire...
The Petersburg Medical Center has discovered that one of its employees may have broken PMC's code of conduct and violated federal healthcare privacy laws when the staff member accessed medical information of patients not under their direct care, according to a press release from PMC. An internal investigation was conducted, which determined the records were inappropriately viewed; however, the investigation found that the violation was an internal breach and patient information did not go beyond...
Instead of his usual report, Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter asked Dr. Jennifer Hyer to give the PMC Board of Directors a detailed report of how the hospital has been responding to the local outbreak of COVID-19 at their meeting on Feb. 25. Hyer was on call during the weekend of Feb. 19, 20 and 21 when active cases of COVID-19 began increasing in Petersburg. The active cases were being identified from different locations around town. While PMC had always been able to trace...
Petersburg's active COVID-19 case count reached a new high of 67 cases on Wednesday, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Two cases were reported on Wednesday, and an additional two cases were added to Tuesday's overall case count. Two more residents were also deemed recovered by public health officials on Wednesday. Because cases were added to both Tuesday's and Wednesday's case count, Petersburg had an overall active case count of 67 on...
There are 30 active cases of COVID-19 in Petersburg as of 3 P.M. Tuesday, all of which were reported in the last six days, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The current active cases are predominately symptomatic and were infected through community spread, according to the press release. Public health officials are investigating the active cases, but contact tracing is proving difficult. Cases first started to appear in town Thursday,... Full story
Petersburg COVID-19 case count has risen by six cases since Monday evening for a total of 26 active cases, according to the Emergency Operations Center COVID-19 Dashboard. Twenty-four of the active cases are currently in Petersburg, while the remaining two cases are infected residents who are outside of the community, according to Incident Commander Karl Hagerman at a special Borough Assembly meeting on Tuesday. The EOC issued a CodeRed alert Monday evening to make the community aware of the... Full story
A pre-hire employee for the 2021 tanner and golden king crab season at OBI Seafoods has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center on Monday. The individual tested positive during the cannery's asymptomatic testing of all incoming employees, according to a press release from OBI Seafoods. The person is currently asymptomatic and is in isolation. Employees that may have come into contact with the infected individual...
Petersburg Incident Commander Karl Hagerman apologized at the COVID-19 community update on Friday for the borough's use of the CodeRED system on Jan. 29 that encouraged residents to put their names on Petersburg Medical Center's waitlist to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. "There was some concern that the system shouldn't have been used for that," said Hagerman. "We're listening to that. A lot of that had to do with the text of the message. We wanted people to sit up and take notice, but I think...
Petersburg Medical Center hired a total of 58 employees in 2020 but lost 29 staff members in the same time frame, according to Human Resources Director Cynthia Newman at the PMC Board of Director meeting on Jan. 28. "It appears there has been a lot of movement coming in and out of the hospital personnel wise," said PMC Board President Jerod Cook. Of the 58 employees hired, 26 were emergency hires to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight hospital screeners, six airport screeners and eight...
A pre-hire employee for the 2021 tanner and golden king crab season at OBI Seafoods has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The individual tested positive during the cannery’s asymptomatic testing of all incoming employees, according to a press release from OBI Seafoods. The person is currently asymptomatic and is in isolation. Employees that may have come into contact with the infected individual have b... Full story
At the COVID community update on Jan. 22, Incident Commander Karl Hagerman told the public that the local COVID-19 active case count had finally returned to zero. Additionally, there haven't been any new cases of the virus reported within the last seven days. "We had a rough patch in the past week and a half or so with an increase in cases," said Hagerman on Jan. 22. "It's very nice to be back at zero." Petersburg Medical Center has collected a total of 8,055 test samples as of Friday to be...
The Petersburg Borough gave the Petersburg Medical Center permission to apply for a second Paycheck Protection Program loan totaling $1.8 million at their meeting on Tuesday evening through emergency ordinance #2021-02. PMC applied and received a loan of the same amount in April through the Small Business Administration. Businesses that received a PPP loan had the opportunity to have the loan forgiven if the money was spent on certain expenses like payroll and rent. PMC had its loan forgiven in...
The Petersburg Emergency Operations Center lowered the community risk of COVID-19 transmission from orange to yellow, or level one on Wednesday, according to a joint press between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Although the current active case number in town is nine as of Wednesday afternoon, the EOC said the cases were a part of household clusters and have been isolated from the community; as a result, the EOC is able to lower the overall community risk level. However, an...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board of Directors awarded a $1.3 million request for proposal to Cerner for a new electronic health records system at an executive meeting on Dec. 22. The electronic health records system is to be paid for with a state grant awarded to PMC for the technological improvement of the facility, according to PMC CEO Phil Hostetter at a regular hospital board meeting in early December. PMC was also able to overhaul its telehealth infrastructure to help with the COVID-19...
Petersburg Medical Center received 220 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday and has since begun vaccinating those who are most at risk, according to local health officials at the COVID-19 community update on Dec. 18. The vaccinations arrived on the afternoon jet from a cold storage facility in Anchorage, and almost immediately afterwards, PMC staff set to work. Mamie Nilsen, a registered nurse in the hospital's long term care facility, was the first person in Petersburg to receive th...
The Borough Assembly failed to pass a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the borough and Petersburg Medical Center to provide COVID-19 asymptomatic testing at Mountain View Manor Assisted Living at their meeting on Monday. On Nov. 18, PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter sent an email to the borough and the Petersburg School District, suggesting the asymptomatic testing of employees at MVM AL and at PSD by the hospital. Hofstetter cited rising COVID-19 case numbers in congregate settings across the state...
Petersburg's Emergency Operations Center has released the draft of its risk communication plan and COVID-19 dashboard, which will monitor the status of the virus in the community and offer mitigation strategies based on the current risk level. The dashboard utilizes four risk levels ranging from green to red to gauge the local COVID-19 status. It also monitors the risk levels at Petersburg Medical Center and Petersburg School District. Data on the dashboard shows COVID-19 tests numbers and any...
Three new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in town since last week's COVID-19 community update, according to joint press releases between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The first two cases were identified on the morning of Nov. 14. One positive case was confirmed to be a local resident who is traveling out of state, according to a joint press release. The individual is isolated at their destination and will remain there until they have recovered. The person was not in...
Incident Commander Karl Hagerman encouraged residents at Friday's COVID-19 community update who travel to other parts of the state to be tested for COVID-19 upon their return to town. The request follows five recent confirmed cases of the virus linked to intrastate travel. While Alaska residents are required to test for COVID-19 either before or after they arrive back in the state from other parts of the country, they don't need to be tested for the virus when traveling throughout Alaska. Four...
In his report to the Petersburg Medical Center Board of Directors last week, PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter said a nationwide shortage of Cepheid cartridges has caused the hospital to closely monitor its own supply of cartridges and enacted guidelines for rapid testing. The hospital's testing capacity is currently exceeding its par level, or the number of cartridges needed to react to a local outbreak, Hofstetter said. "We cannot get the supplies needed to test," said Hofstetter to the borough...
Petersburg School District is expected to reopen their doors today, Oct. 29, after a positive case of COVID-19 was confirmed at Rae C. Stedman Elementary School on Tuesday that resulted in a district-wide school closure, according to Petersburg School District Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. Petersburg public health officials completed their contract tracing related to the school district on Wednesday, said Kludt-Painter. Students and staff who have been instructed to quarantine were asked...
