Chris Merculief

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is a non-profit health organization owned and managed by Alaska Native tribal governments and their regional health organizations. The Consortium was created in 1997 to provide statewide Native health services. To achieve its goals, ANTHC works closely with tribes, Native health organizations, the state of Alaska, and municipalities. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is a: •Major medical center •Design and engineering group •Construction project manager •Purchaser of medical care services •Medical supply distributor •Professional recruiting agency •Technology development enterprise •Health research organization •Public health and advocacy agency •Health information systems manager The company's vast distances and sometimes harsh climate and terrain present challenges for health service providers. Tribal health organizations are known for their innovative approaches in facing those challenges. In the past two years, people from around the world have visited Alaska to learn more. In 2007, The company's health organizations hosted visits by Maori people of New Zealand, Aboriginal people of Australia, and Native Hawaiian health advocates. Other guests, including government delegations from China and Greenaland and medical teams from Norway, Panama, and Kosovo, highlight the concept of diverse cultures benefitting from Alaska technology. The Consortium works to achieve its mission through its divisions: Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) is a 150-bed facility offering specialty, tertiary, and primary care, and co-managed by ANTHC and Southcentral Foundation. ANMC provides a full range of medical services with over 250 Board-certified physicians and more than 700 nurses on staff. ANMC is Alaska's first and only Level II Trauma Center, the highest level that can be achieved in Alaska. The company is Alaska's first and only Magnet Hospital, which recognizes quality patient care and nursing excellence, and the only tribally-operated hospital with Magnet Status in the United States. In Fiscal Year 2007 (September 31, 2006-October 1, 2007) or FY07, the Medical Center admitted 6,980 patients, provided 393,515 out-patient clinic visits, delivered 1,416 infants, and performed 11,885 surgical procedures. ANMC specialist physicians provided 835 days of on-site specialty clinics at 14 regional hospitals and health clinics across Alaska. Division of Environmental Health and Engineering (DEHE) provides safe water and wastewater disposal facilities, and provides technical assistance with the construction, maintenance and renovation of health care facilities. DEHE assists and trains operators and managers of water and sewer systems. The company provides environmental health programs (such as environmental sampling and assessment) and community-based injury prevention programs. In FY07, DEHE worked in 41 rural Alaska Native communities to provide safe and reliable in-home water supply and wastewater disposal. Today, 74 percent of all Native homes in rural Alaska have this service, an increase of almost two percent over the previous year. In FY07, government agencies awarded ANTHC a total of $52.6 million for future design and construction projects. DEHE built 15 new clinics in rural communities in partnership with the Denali Commission, and finished designing 10 additional clinics for constructioin in FY08. The company's job training programs provided 100 students training in boiler maintenance, water distribution, electrical controls, and other trades skills. Division of Community Health Services (DCHS) manages Alaska Native health research projects, monitors industrial pollutant levels in Alaska Native mothers and infants, trains chemical dependency counselors and tracks and promotes immunization, and prevent Hepatitis. Its emergency preparedness program is working to increase the capability of rural Alaska communities to handle public health and bioterrorism emergencies. As of FY07, eight Dental Health Aide Therapists are working in Alaska communities, and ANTHC has launched an Alaska-based training program for more. Fifty individuals are being trained to become Behavioral Health Aides and help address substance abuse and mental health challenges in their communities. Consortium Business Support Services (CBSS) includes finance; human resources (including statewide professional recruitment, development and training, internships and scholarships); legal counsel; and strategic planning and networking; and public relations and communications. Division of Health Information Technology provides technical support, coordination, and training for clinical engineering, Resource and Patient Management System, telemedicine, and statistics for the Statewide Alaska tribal health system. DHIT maintains a Wide Area Network to ensure that patient information remains confidential yet available to medical providers whenever their patients seek medical care in Alaska. HIT is developing plans to convert paper medical records to electronic format because more accurate and timely records reduce medical errors and improve patient safety. The company manages the Alaska Federal Health Care Access Network and a teleradiology project. In FY07, thanks to a video-teleconference system created by HIT, a child receiving cancer care at Seattle's Children's Hospital could see and talk with his family in one of Alaska's small villages. AFHCAN has increased the number of videoconferencing sites in Alaska to 96. In FY07, AFHCAN began deploying telemedicine system upgrades that provide greater capability to Community Health Aides to provide care to their patients in the villages. About 68 percent of all telehealth cases prevented unnecessary patient travel. In 8 percent of the cases, telehealth asssessments resulted in patients traveling to see providers who were able to catch a critical disease at an earlier stage, when treatment is often more effective. In FY07, HIT provided training to 444 telehealth users. ANMC specialists now provide Continuing Medical Education and on-site training to staff at both regional hospitals and village clinics. AFHCAN capabilities have been exported to Indian Health Service facilities across the country. The State of Alaska has chosen ANTHC's Regional Supply Service Center as the agency to deploy the 'National Strategic Stockpile' of emergency medical supplies if necessary in major emergencies in Alaska. This year the Regional Supply Service Center distributed $2 million worth of routine medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to tribal health facilities statewide.