The Harvard Honoring Nations awarded the Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative (ARUC) with its highest award on Wednesday, Oct. 12 during a special presentation at the National Congress of American Indians conference in Phoenix, Arizona. ARUC was one of six semifinalists from Tribal programs across the country, out of an original field of 87 applicants. Harvard Honoring Nations is an award of The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, a project of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard ...
Updating, improving ANMC’s Emergency Department
Opened in 1997, ANMC is almost 20 years old and experiencing the expected growing pains and aging challenges. To improve the care environment and provide the best service for our people, ANMC’s Strategic Access team is refreshing the Emergency Department (ED) on the first floor of the hospital. This project is a collaboration between several teams at ANMC and continues previous work that updated all inpatient rooms in the hospital. When the project is complete, visitors to the ED will ...
New treatment for hepatitis C infection now available at ANMC
Since 2013, more effective drug therapies for treating hepatitis C have increased the rate at which our people are completing treatment that leads to a cure for the deadly virus. Joining a family of highly effective direct acting antiviral therapies available at ANMC is a newly licensed drug consisting of sofosbuvir and valpatasvir (Epclusa®, Gilead Sciences, Inc.). This is a fixed-dose combination tablet that covers six hepatitis C virus genotypes and is approved for use in persons with serious liver ...
ANTHC is making great strides in sanitation construction across Alaska. The innovative, complex ongoing work is often centered on building and upgrading water and sanitation facilities so that our people in rural Alaska can live healthier lives, and the community infrastructure can run effectively and affordably. This season, construction crews have: Continued construction for fully-piped water and sewer systems in Eek, Kwethluk and Lower Kalskag; Installed more than 15 miles of water and sewer main, almost seven miles of service ...
The curriculum for Alaska’s Dental Health Aide Therapist (DHAT) program was recently approved by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, through ANTHC’s partnership with Iḷisaġvik College in Barrow. This newly accredited degree program offers DHAT students the opportunity to earn an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree. In addition to the two-year AAS degree, which helps create broader career pathways for DHAT graduates, Iḷisaġvik will award a DHAT certificate upon completion of the first year of study. The program ...
ANTHC’s Tobacco Prevention and Control program offers an annual Tobacco Treatment Specialist (TTS) training for those interested in becoming Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialists. This five-day intensive training teaches health care professionals the necessary skills to provide effective, evidence-based interventions for individuals who are ready to quit using tobacco. This year’s training took place Sept. 26-30 and 40 health care professionals from 16 communities across the state attended including Dental Health Aide Therapists (DHATs), Community Health Aide Practitioners (CHAPs), Behavioral Health ...
At ANMC our staff constantly go above and beyond in serving our people. Customer service is not only provided by our frontline staff, but by each employee who directly serves and cares for our people. Last week, ANMC celebrated National Customer Service Week and recognized our hardworking staff and gave special recognition to Katherine Swanson, ANMC Urology Physician Assistant, and the ANMC Internal Medicine Clinic team. Swanson received six written customer compliments in fiscal year (FY) 2016 and the ANMC ...
Water treatment plant upgrades completed in Hughes
Keeping water flowing and easily accessible is no small task in Hughes, Alaska, a remote community hundreds of miles northwest of Fairbanks. But a recent water treatment upgrade completed by one of ANTHC’s engineering teams is accomplishing just that. One of the challenges faced by the engineering team was bringing the plant into compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s surface water treatment rule; at the same time, the team had to keep the plant running while replacing some of ...
Free flu vaccines are now available for our people throughout the state. It is important for all people to get vaccinated for the flu to protect ourselves, as well as our family, coworkers and community. In addition, influenza poses a greater risk to certain people like pregnant women, children and Elders – they are all at high risk for flu-related complications. ANMC offers the quadrivalent flu vaccine that protects against many forms of the flu virus that may occur in ...
A cancer diagnosis impacts not only the individuals but entire family and support systems. When a loved one dies, there are few grief support resources available to families living in our rural communities. To address the need for grief support for young children aged 6 to 12, the ANTHC Cancer Program created a one-day grief camp called Camp Coho. Funded by ANTHC’s Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation, the Cancer Program offered the fifth annual Camp Coho on Saturday, Oct.1 in Anchorage. ...