A brand new floor plan within the walls of a longstanding Norton Sound Health Corporation (NSHC) building is home to new patient housing for the hospital. The facility, known as “Hostel West”, nearly doubles the regional hospital’s patient housing capacity.
The facility is available to Alaska Native beneficiaries in need of a place to stay while completing care at the hospital or passing through to Anchorage for services not available in Nome.
NSHC’s Director of Patient Support Services, Christine Schultz, explained the need for expanding the hospital’s patient housing capacity.
“We really are dedicated at Norton Sound at making sure that everybody gets the health care that they need, which means we authorize a lot of people in for care,” Schultz explained. “You're not gonna be able to get that if you don't have a place to stay when you're here. So that's the driving force behind it.”
According to Schultz, last year the hospital lodged nearly 13,000 people for an average of 35 per night. The new 16-room hostel will supplement the existing 21-room “Hostel East”. The addition of Hostel West will help alleviate overcrowding and reduce the need for patients to share rooms, a practice that had become necessary due to space limitations.
NSHC began work on the facility, once home to the Public Health Nursing and Behavioral Health Services departments, last fall. Schultz says they tore down all of the walls to make room for a unique floorplan that maximized the space.
“We didn't do a lot to the exterior, but we completely gutted the interior. It was a cave, just four walls and we used every possible inch of space. So you walk through the building, and every single room is different,” Schultz said.
The two-floor facility has 10 rooms with full beds and six rooms with an additional twin bed for patients with escorts. Each room includes a TV, refrigerator, microwave, sink, shelving, and a coffee maker. At the request of parents, 14 of the 16 rooms include bathtubs while the other two feature handicap accessible showers.
Two of the rooms are suites, complete with induction cooktops and in-unit laundry machines. Schultz says the rooms will be perfect for families and expecting mothers.
“That's where most of our OB patients are going to end up because they have to be here for at least three weeks before their due date,” Schultz said. “That's a great space if a family needs to come in.”
No detail in the new facility was overlooked, including plastic sheathing on the wall behind coat racks in each room. Noticeably the coat racks in the handicap accessible spaces are closer to the ground so people in wheelchairs can reach them. Locally harvested blueberries and commercial smoked salmon strips will be available at a snack area near the front desk to make guests feel more at home. The barren walls of the facility will also soon be filled with native art hand-picked by a selection committee.
For meals, guests can take a quick shuttle to the hospital to eat at the cafe. The shuttle service is also available for guests when they’re ready for their appointments or to head to the airport.
Schultz, who has been with NSHC for 25 years, expressed her deep pride in seeing the project finally come to fruition.
“This lodging system is special in my heart,” Schultz said. “It just makes me happy, walking into the hostel is kind of like old home week, because you have all these people coming in from the villages and they get to see their friends from other villages they haven't seen for a while. It's a really fun place to be.”
With the opening of the new hostel, NSHC announced the hiring of Rebecca Callahan as their new Patient Hostel Manager. In a September 3 NSHC Weekly Update newsletter, the 21-year Nome resident shared her vision for the hostels.
“We hope that both of our Patient Hostels act as a home away from home so that patients are comfortable while they receive the care they need,” Callahan said.
Hostel West began accepting patients last week.
