Navajo Area IHS projects get cash boost

Some 48 Indian Health Service projects on or around the Navajo Nation will be funded as part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package.

The projects are part of a $500 million infusion into the resource-strapped IHS announced Friday by the service's new director, former University of Arizona medical school professor Yvette Roubideaux, in a telephone press conference from Washington, D.C.

"I'm really grateful to President Obama for allocating these critical resources to Indian Country," said Roubideaux, Rosebud Sioux.

"These funds will impact health care, create jobs and make our communities stronger."

On the list for repair or renovation are adolescent treatment centers in Chinle and Page, Ariz., and Crownpoint; community health representatives' offices in Chinle, Dennehotso, Ariz., Dilkon, Ariz., Fort Defiance and Tuba City; the Kayenta and Tuba City outpatient facilities and several others.

About 20 Navajo units are getting new medical equipment, ranging from defibrillators in Inscription House, Ariz., to an electrocardiograph in Montezuma Creek, Utah.

The laboratory at Winslow Indian Health Care Center will be completely replaced.

Also on the funding list are water and sewer projects in Rock Point, Sawmill, Round Rock, Chilchinbeto, Cottonwood, Cove, Chinle, Coppermine, Jeddito, Kayenta, St. Michaels, Navajo Mountain and Wide Ruins, all in Arizona, and between Shiprock and Sweetwater, N.M.

Ramah's IHS facility will get a new roof, heating and cooling system and a cassette reader to allow staff to access digital images.

Meanwhile, planned new IHS facilities in Kayenta, Dilkon, Bodaway-Gap and Gallup are still among 19 planned projects on the construction priority list, said Randy Grinnell, IHS deputy director for management operations.

The new projects have already been approved and will be constructed as funds are allocated from the regular IHS budget, which Obama beefed up by about 13 percent to $4 billion.

Grinnell, Sac and Fox, had no estimate on the number of jobs the new projects will create.

More than half of the $500 million will be used to build two new health facilities not currently on the priority list: the Eagle Butte Health Center in South Dakota and the Norton Sound Regional Health Center in Nome, Alaska.

Another $100 million will go toward maintenance and repairs of existing facilities, $85 million for health information technology, $68 million for water and sanitation project and $20 million for health equipment, Roubideaux announced.

While the $500 million represents a significant infusion for the IHS, "we still have much work ahead of us," Grinnell said.

He noted that about $2.6 billion would be needed to build all 19 new facilities on the priority list, and the $100 million in maintenance and repair funding represents only about 25 percent of a "huge backlog" identified by tribes.

The $68 million allocated for sanitation systems just scratches the surface of that need, estimated by the tribes at $2.6 billion.

While she confined questions to the stimulus package, Roubideaux did say it was an "honor" to have been selected to head the IHS, which she utilized as a patient while growing up in South Dakota.

"I've seen the Indian Health Service through the eyes of a patient, and also through the eyes of a doctor and an administrator," she said.

A list of projects broken down by state can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/ihs/preawardfundingstate.html.

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