Norton Sound Health Corporation

Norton Sound Health Corporation

Nome

Nome is known for its finish line for the 1,049 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that is held in Alaska every year. The race begins on the first Saturday in March in Anchorage and the first sled dog team to cross the finish line in Nome wins. Nome is only accessible by plane or boat. Everywhere you look in Nome you will see artifacts of the gold rush as well as abandoned dredges. Over the flower filled tundra you can see musk oxen and reindeer gazing off the road. While out there you might also come across bears, moose, fox, beaver, wolves, and much more. In the summer months fishing is the thing to do.

Norton Sound Health Corporation (NSHC)

The Norton Sound Health Corporation (NSHC), a tribally owned and operated, independent, not-for-profit health care organization. NSHC operates the Norton Sound Regional Hospital in Nome and clinics in the 15 villages within the 44,000 square miles that comprise the Bering Strait region.

NSHC was established in 1970 to meet the health care needs of the Bering Strait region’s Inupiaq, Siberian Yupik and Yup’ik people. Its mission is to provide quality health services and promote wellness within our people and environment.

Village Health Services manages clinic operations in all 15 villages of the region. The majority of staff in the department are community health aide practitioners – local residents who have been trained at the Health Aide Training Center in Nome. These front-line primary health care providers are a critical link between doctors in Nome and patients in villages. Five villages – Brevig Mission, Savoonga, Gambell, Stebbins, and White Mountain – also have a full time physician assistant or nurse practitioner. Shishmaref and Unalakleet each have a dental health aide practitioner, and a larger sub-regional clinic in Unalakleet provides additional services. Additionally we have our providers travel to the clinics in all 15 villages throughout the year.