The Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation, INC

Who makes up The Hospital Foundation?

The Hospital Foundation membership includes a wide variety of people from many facets of the community, all of whom share a common interest in providing healthcare to Fairbanks and Interior Alaska. The Hospital Foundation members elect Trustees who govern The Hospital Foundation's business and oversee Banner Health's operation of the hospital campus for the community.

Trustees and other members of The Hospital Foundation, working in volunteer committees, spend countless hours planning for the future of the hospital campus, working with Banner Health, the local medical community, and community and state leaders. They do this not for personal benefit, or for the benefit of a few, but for the benefit of the entire greater Fairbanks area and Interior Alaska.

Who oversees the hospital’s operations?

Banner Health, formerly known as Lutheran Hospitals & Homes Society (LHHS), operates the hospital campus, and this relationship is essential to the community. Banner Health has exceptional managers and financial and legal professionals, as well as extensive technology resources, to support all of its facilities. All of these resources are available to our hospital campus. Banner Health also has financial strength and purchasing power far beyond our own, resulting in significant savings for our community hospital.

Terms of the current operational lease - which runs until December 31, 2012, but can be terminated at any time by either party with one year's notice - include:

Banner Health operates the hospital campus for the community, and The Hospital Foundation's Executive Committee serves as the Local Advisory Committee, i.e., as the voice of the community providing input and guidance in the operations of the campus.
The Hospital Foundation pays for all capital expenditures for the campus, including capital repairs (beyond routine maintenance), renovations, new facilities, new properties and new equipment.
Banner Health is paid an annual administrative fee. All other net operational revenues stay in Fairbanks.

Where does the revenue go?

First, it's in the facilities. Fairbanks has one of the finest hospital campuses in the country for a community of its size, and it's continually updated with the latest equipment. That's where most of the money goes.
Second, The Hospital Foundation and Banner Health have worked hard to make FMH the lowest cost acute care provider in the state. This means charges are lower than they could be, leaving what we can in the hands of the people served. We know that when you see a hospital bill it is hard to say 'low-cost' anything, but we also know that when our bills are placed next to Anchorage hospital bills, they compare very favorably.
Last, The Hospital Foundation works with Banner Health to ensure the provision of community services that may not necessarily make money, but are needed in our community, and of an extensive charity care program for those who simply cannot afford to pay for healthcare.