The Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) operates a state-of-the-art, 176-bed hospital providing comprehensive medical services to Alaska Native and American Indian people*. ANMC was Alaska’s first Level II Trauma Center, is a Level II Pediatric Trauma Center and a Comprehensive Pediatric Emergency Center.
One of our ongoing guiding principles is increasing access to care for all our beneficiaries. Some of our strategic themes are outlined below to demonstrate that this is an organization wide initiative.
We have launched an automated alert service to keep important medical appointments at the top of your list. To help with our scheduling and to provide the best patient experience possible, please let us know if you will be at your appointment by responding to our new text notification system.
ANMC also works in close partnership with Alaska’s rural health facilities to support a broad range of health care and related services. As the statewide referral center, ANMC operates both the Quyana House and ANMC Patient Housing facility, which provide a combined 244 rooms for our out-of-town patients and their escorts. These facilities are supported by our Travel Management team who facilitate housing, travel services and Medicaid authorizations.
Mission: The Alaska Native Medical Center fulfills the mission and vision of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) and Southcentral Foundation (SCF) by working together with the Native community to achieve wellness by providing the highest quality health services for all Alaska Native people.
History: In the 1950s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (later transferred to the Indian Health Service) began providing health care for Alaska Native people. By 1999, ANMC’s transition to Alaska Native ownership was completed with its transfer to ANTHC and SCF. Today, ANMC has become a world leader in health care where advanced technology meets culturally sensitive patient and-family-centered care. ANMC is also a gathering place where longtime friends celebrate life events, learn ways to maintain wellness and simply visit one another.
In Alaska, Tribal management of health care recognizes the importance of local decision making for the unique health needs of the Tribal members served.
The Alaska Tribal Health System is a voluntary affiliation of Tribes and Tribal organizations providing health services to Alaska Native and American Indian people. Comprised of the 25 signing organizations of the Alaska Tribal Health Compact, which authorizes Tribal management of services previously provided by the Indian Health Service, each Tribal health organization is autonomous and serves a specific geographical area across the state of Alaska. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium was created in 1997 by Congressional authorization to provide statewide health services and support for all Alaska Tribal health organizations and communities. This narrative overview of the path to Tribally managed health care in the Alaska Tribal Health System was sponsored by ANTHC through a partnership with the Anchorage Daily News in 2019.
After achieving self-governance, Alaska’s new Tribal health consortium set its sights on reimagining a health care system built for Alaska Native people, by Alaska Native people.
“We knew if we had that authority, we could move in a more agile way,” said Roald Helgesen, a Tribal health care leader from Sitka who was named CEO of ANTHC in 2011. From the beginning, ANTHC’s leaders prioritized a proactive approach to health and health care, in ways designed specifically for Alaska Native people and the communities where they live.
“Promoting Alaska Native traditions such as Native language, storytelling, songs and dances, traditional foods and plants are the best medicine for treating our people in a holistic manner,” said Tina Woods, senior director of community health services for ANTHC. “In a system managed by Alaska Native people for Alaska Native people, we take a culturally responsive approach to promoting wellness in a way that was not imaginable prior to self-governance.”
Our beneficiaries are located across the state of Alaska and a great many of them do not have access to running water or a road system. This has placed the onus on us to find ways to deliver care to some of the most isolated citizens in the United States. Due to the geographical constraints of our beneficiaries, we have constructed a Field Work system for many of our specialties. Providers will fly out to the remote villages and meet with patients over a 3-day period to assess further needs and administer as much care as possible.
It is important to remember that Alaska is the size of California, Texas, and Montana combined. This speaks to the logistical barriers we have committed to overcoming so that all our beneficiaries can have access to elite level medical care. Our Environmental Health Services program works with Tribal partners and communities to help prevent illness and injury and promote the health and well-being of Alaska Native people. The program’s focus is to serve Anchorage Service Unit communities by supporting critical environmental health infrastructure, supporting public health programs like the State of Alaska Lay Vaccinator program, and providing technical assistance and education on environmental health topics.
The program supports Village Health Clinics and Health Aides by performing Environmental Health and Safety Surveys that help maintain high quality facilities. The program also offers respirator fit testing services as well as training, templates and resources for clinic staff.
The program supports water and sewer utility providers and operators by performing Environmental Health and Safety Surveys that help maintain high quality facilities. Additionally, the program helps with writing Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR), Sanitary Surveys, community water fluoridation and water/sewer resources and training.
The program supports IGAP coordinators by offering technical assistance, guidance, and resources on various environmental health topics.
The program supports Head Start programs by performing Environmental Health and Safety Surveys that help maintain high quality facilities. The program also offers training, resources, and guidance on various environmental health topics to both Head Start staff and parents.
The program supports landfill administrators and operators by offering training and performing Environmental Health and Safety Surveys that help maintain high quality facilities.
The program supports community members by offering technical assistance, guidance, and resources on various environmental health topics.
ANTHC’s Center for Climate and Health assists communities and helps them to better understand the impacts of climate change and how to adapt in healthy ways. The program provides assessments, technical assistance, training through 7 Generations and assistance monitoring environmental impacts. In addition, the program coordinates the interagency One Health Group, which provides surveillance on emerging environmental, wildlife and public health threats.
The One Health Group was formed in 2013 and is hosted by ANTHC and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Arctic Investigations Program. The group includes professionals from Canada, Alaska and other parts of the United States and it is open to professionals in the fields of wildlife and environmental management and public health among others. The One Health Group meets quarterly to share information on activities, discuss emerging One Health issues, consider events that are indicative of environmental and climate change and to provide a forum for identifying areas of common interest and collaboration.
Northern communities are changing due to environmental impacts, climate change and development. The LEO Network is a network of local environmental observers and topic experts who apply traditional knowledge, western science, and technology to document significant, unusual, or unprecedented environmental events in our communities. These changes can be observed in seasonality, plants and wildlife, weather conditions as well as natural hazards including coastal erosion, flooding, droughts, wildfire, and other events that can threaten food security, water security and community health. The purpose of the LEO Network is to increase understanding about environmental change so communities can adapt in healthy ways.
The LEO Network utilizes web-accessible maps to display observations which are then shared with network members. The maps contain descriptions, photos, expert consultations, and links to information resources. LEO Network is available through our web app at www.leonetwork.org as well as through our mobile app “LEO Reporter” for iPhone and iPad and Android.
The reach of Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is so vast and encompasses a great deal of services, please visit the below link to learn even more about the initiatives that we have ongoing to serve our beneficiaries.
https://www.anthc.org/what-we-do/community-environment-and-health/
https://www.healthyalaskans.org/
https://www.anthc.org/what-we-do/community-environment-and-health/tribal-capacity-and-training/
https://www.anthc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ANTHC-AR22.pdf
ANTHC is managed and operated by its people, who are represented by 15 Alaska Native leaders from around the state. The ANTHC Board of Directors works together on behalf of the Alaska Native people we serve and collaboratively guides strategy for the Consortium to achieve ANTHC’s vision.
https://www.anthc.org/who-we-are/board-of-directors/