At the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center, a lack of health care providers has temporarily constricted access to medical care at the facility that serves some of the city’s neediest residents.

Over the past few months, the neighborhood health center in Midtown has been reeling from rapid staff turnover. It has welcomed a new executive director and medical director, but lost health care providers. Some have retired, left the state or switched to private practice. Others just “want a change,” said Jon Zasada, the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center’s director of development and marketing.

“We keep using the words perfect storm, and it is so cliche,” Zasada said. “It’s tough when you’re between leadership.”

For some new patients, an understaffed Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center means a medical appointment will have to wait — at least until the end of this summer. Currently, providers continue to see patients who have visited the center within the last three years, said Tammy Green, the center’s new executive director who started June 1.

But the center is only taking new patients who meet at least one of four criteria, she said. They must be homeless, pregnant, HIV-positive or in need of a primary care provider as a requirement for their release from the hospital, she said.

Dr. Jenny Love, the neighborhood health centers new medical director, said the restricted access is far from ideal. 

“I’m not happy about it, Love said. It’s not something I would want to publicize, but it’s reality. It’s what we’ve had to do in order to make sure that we’re not overwhelming the staff.”

Green said she expects the neighborhood health center to remain in this state of transition, with limited access, until at least the end of the summer. The limited access does not apply to the health center’s dental service, she said.

“It’s a hard thing when you know you really want to serve the community and you may not be able to meet that need right away,” she said. “But I just want to assure our community that we’re doing everything we can to bring the promise back, to make sure that we can serve all of our patients or all the folks who need us.”

In 2014, the neighborhood health center had 13,919 patients, 66 percent of whom had an income at or below the federal poverty level, $14,580 for a single person that year. Forty-two percent did not have health insurance, according to the health center’s annual report.

The neighborhood health center charges for its services on a sliding fee discount, a federal program. So someone without health insurance whose household income is at or below poverty level would pay $20 for a medical visit that normally costs $253 at the health center.

While the neighborhood health center has limited access for medical appointments, it is redirecting new patients to other clinics, said Green, who previously worked as the system director of well-being for the Providence Health and Services system.

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