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Anchorage-based Alaska Urological Associates is closing down its Juneau office at the end of business today, leaving the capital without a practicing urologist.

The practice decided to scale back its services in Juneau, said AUA practice manager Tina Presley. However, she emphasized that the practice will maintain a presence by sending doctors one week a month.

Dr. Michael Singsaas, the lone urologist at the practice in Juneau, could not be reached for comment Wednesday and Thursday.

"Alaska Urological Associates has been in Juneau for a very longtime, even before Dr. Singsaas," Presley said. "We are going to continue being there and having a presence there as long as everybody allows us to be there."

The practice plans to offer five days of clinical care and one day of surgery out of a space in the Bartlett Regional Hospital specialty clinic. The practice will be sending doctors with sub-specialties of urology to treat illnesses such as pancreatic cancer, she said.

"We're doing the same thing that we did in Fairbanks in Juneau, and we tend to be able to serve more people in a different way," Presley said.

Presley said she doesn't know how many patients UAU serves in Juneau and couldn't estimate.

David Ingram, a patient of Singsaas, said he has concerns about AUA shutting down its Juneau office. Ingram was told Singsaas will be relocating to Anchorage. The community is losing expertise, he said.

"For the general population, losing Dr. Singsaas is a real loss," he said. "The main thing is I will not have an expert handy to deal with problems as they arise and to consult with on a moment's notice. To have something checked out right now is not going to be possible."

One of the main considerations for closing the Juneau office is new federal mandates coming down the pipeline, which include digital record keeping requirements and changes related to prescribing medication for Medicare patients, Presley said. The mandates are putting a huge burden on older physicians and requiring them to learn a whole new way of practicing, she added.

"All those mandates are making it so anywhere from 55 (years old) and on that we're asking them to change the way they've practiced medicine their whole entire lives," Presley said. "For a small clinic that is just going to slow them down even more."

Ingram said he could go to a general practitioner, but he prefers to be seen by a specialist.

"It will be like taking a car to a general mechanic versus one that is trained to work on Lamborghinis," he said.

The practice has highly skilled physicians that will still be able to serve all of the patients in Juneau that need care, Presley said.

"Anything that can't be handled right there can be sent to Anchorage and be seen by the rest of the colleagues in the practice," she said.

• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.