The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) is the largest tribal health organization in the United States, serving 158,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people through a mix of urban hospitals, rural clinics, telehealth networks, and mobile health initiatives. As co-manager of the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) in Anchorage and the backbone of statewide sanitation and climate health infrastructure, ANTHC oversees a truly statewide capital and service portfolio spanning urban, remote, and extreme environments.
In recognition of its extraordinary efforts to improve health outcomes and infrastructure across some of the most remote communities in the country, ANTHC was honored with the 2025 Public Service Award at the Project Empowerment Awards.
A Diverse and Mission-Critical Portfolio
ANTHC's capital investments reflect its vast, frontier-scale mission:
- Emergency services expansion at ANMC (a $257 million project) to enlarge the ER, build behavioral health and surgical recovery spaces, and a new ambulance entrance.
- Short-term Skilled Nursing Facility, a 92,000 ft², 78-bed care facility under construction, scheduled for 2026 completion at a cost of ~$70 million.
- Rural sanitation infrastructure—deploying over $440 million in water/wastewater upgrades to more than 3,000 homes in remote villages, transforming hygiene and public health across Alaska.
- Campus renovation and patient housing, including 200-room supportive housing and multi-clinic improvements, enhancing care access and cultural connection.
- Climate and telehealth initiatives, leveraging nearly $75 million in federal grants for resilient infrastructure and telehealth to 180 rural clinics.
What Project Empowerment Looks Like and Why It Matters
ANTHC’s portfolio transforms public health across vast distances and challenging ecosystems. Their successes include:
- Reducing hospital overcrowding with strategic emergency and skilled-nursing capacity.
- Delivering modern sanitation to remote communities—eliminating honey buckets and reducing disease.
- Enhancing care access and cultural support through patient housing and clinic improvements.
- Enabling telehealth connectivity to nearly 200 rural facilities, improving primary care reach.
- Strengthening tribal readiness for climate-health emergencies via federal funding and community tools.
These outcomes reflect a strategic focus on equity, health outcomes, and community resilience—bridging the gaps of geography, culture, and resource scarcity.
Strategic Objectives Behind the Partnership
ANTHC’s capital and project objectives are mission-driven:
- Improve statewide health access through ER expansion, nursing facilities, telehealth, and sanitation infrastructure.
- Reduce health disparities by replacing honey buckets, preventing disease, and relieving overcapacity.
- Support cultural relevance and community engagement with patient housing designed to reflect Alaska Native values and needs.
- Advance climate resilience and preparedness through federal grants and local adaptation programs.
- Ensure sustainable, integrated delivery of large-scale capital projects across diverse regulatory and funding environments.
Partnering with PMWeb allowed ANTHC to coordinate complex projects across regulatory environments, remote sites, and multiple funding sources—bringing discipline, transparency, and governance to their capital progra
Celebrating the Public Service Award
ANTHC received the Public Service Award for its profound community impact through disciplined project management. By deploying PMWeb’s lifecycle tools, ANTHC unified its capital portfolio—combining healthcare expansion, sanitation equity, rural access, and climate adaptation—into a single strategic mission: to elevate the health and wellbeing of Alaska Native communities for generations to come.
