As flu season begins, it is important to know the health benefits of getting an annual flu shot versus myths about the vaccine. Myth: I am healthy, so there is no need for me to get a flu vaccine. Fact: It is true that the flu vaccination is routinely recommended for people who have a chronic illness. But anyone – even healthy people – can benefit from being vaccinated. Current guidelines suggest that children ages 6 months to 19 years ...

When it comes to recovering from an injury or illness, for many people the healing process includes more than the medicine and care received from our medical staff. Many of our patients welcome visits from clergy members volunteering at the Alaska Native Medical Center. October is Clergy Appreciation Month, and ANMC’s Volunteer Services celebrated and thanked our pastoral volunteers with a special meal and tokens of appreciation for all. ANMC has 35 clergy volunteer members, 17 of whom are Alaska ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...