Dear Customers and Visitors:

The Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) is committed to the promotion of quality health including disease prevention.  With this commitment, comes the responsibility of providing a safe and healthy environment.  Beginning on November 16, 2006, ANMC will be a tobacco free campus. All ANMC buildings, properties, parking lots and vehicles will be tobacco free. This includes properties of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) and Southcentral Foundation (SCF).

We have banned tobacco use indoors and outdoors. Customers and visitors will be expected to refrain from using tobacco products inside and outside of ANMC buildings. This ANMC tobacco free policy includes cigarettes, pipes or cigars, snuff, iqmik or dedigus. We ask all customers, visitors, and the workforce to respect these new policies.

This initiative supports our mission, vision and values: to work with our Native communities and encourage wellness by providing the highest quality health services for Native people. The policy will help us:
 
• Provide a safe, supportive, and healthy environment for all
• Offer the best place to heal quickly
• Reach our goal of the best health for Alaska Natives
• Cut down on the harm of tobacco use
• Help those who are trying to quit tobacco 

We are asking that you not smoke or chew while on the ANMC grounds. If you chose to quit, we have care providers who can make it easier to end tobacco use. They can help:

• Inform, educate, and serve
• Support hospital patients 
• Support people who live in the Anchorage area

Please call 907-729-4343 if you would like to talk with a tobacco-treatment specialist.

Thank you for your support in this effort.

Sincerely,

Susan M. Childers, MHA, FHFMA
Interim ANMC Hospital Administrator