Jodi Gillette: In Alaska for HHS tribal consultation

Politics

Monday, June 8, 2009

"Part of my job, as the Deputy Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Associate Director for the Office of Public Engagement, is to find ways to engage communities in a two-way conversation with the White House. Last week, that conversation led me to the northernmost point of the United States and other parts of Alaska.

I traveled north to Alaska with the Department of Health and Human Services to participate in the Region 10 Tribal Budget Consultation Session in Anchorage. After the session, we visited the sites of planned health facilities in Northern Alaska. I saw personally how the President is changing lives and conditions for Alaska Native communities. HHS funding from the Recovery Act has been committed to replace the tribally-operated Norton Sound Regional Hospital with a new facility in Nome, Alaska. We visited the construction site and observed the true meaning of "shovel-ready." The pilings were set into the ground already, and the crews were just waiting for spring barges to deliver the steel as soon as the ice conditions would permit sea navigation. In Alaska, the construction season is much shorter (as building materials must be shipped) and the cost of construction is extremely high. The community was excited and proud of the work they had already done in past years to prepare for the construction.

We visited Teller, a community near Nome, to witness the marvels of technology as Community Health Aides demonstrated the telemedicine kiosk, where medical conditions could be viewed and diagnosed remotely using state-of-the art technology.

Later that day, we traveled to Barrow, the northernmost community in the United States, to visit the site of another facility slated for replacement, starting with the President’s 2010 Budget. "

Get the Story:
Jodi A. Gillette: In Alaska (The White House Blog 6/5