The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) has announced plans to double the capacity of its YK Elders Home, the only long-term care facility serving Bethel and the wider region.
That’s after the healthcare provider was selected by the United States Indian Health Service to take part in the agency’s Joint Venture Construction Program (JVCP). The program requests long-term funding — up to 20 years — from Congress to cover staffing and operations at healthcare facilities constructed, acquired, or renovated by tribal organizations. This year marks the first time that the Indian Health Service has awarded funding to long-term care facilities through the program.
The YK Elders Home expansion is expected to begin construction in the next two to five years at a cost of roughly $66 million. The project will make the 49,000-square-foot facility more than one and half times larger. It will double the number of available beds, from 18 to 36.
YKHC was also selected in 2016 to receive funding through the JVCP as part of its massive Yukon-Kuskokwim Regional Hospital renovation project. When completed in 2021, former YKHC CEO Dan Winkelman said that the $340 million project was the largest joint venture construction project in the history of the Indian Health Service.
