Healing, pride, aesthetics and size.

• Author: Forker, Jennifer
• Position: Alaska Native Medical Center - Includes related article on architectural design

The new Alaska Native Medical Center boasts more than vastly improved care. At twice the size of the old building, and with abundant aesthetic appeal, Alaska Natives can be proud of their facility.

It isn't without a few glitches, but patients and employees alike enjoy the new Alaska Native Medical Center's splendid architecture, decentralized services and healing environment.

"Basically, I'm just kind of awed to walk through the doors and know I work here," says Dr. Richard Mandsager.

As director of the medical center, Mandsager had a personal stake in the successful transfer of staff, equipment and patients from the old building on Third Avenue to the upscale $167 million site on Tudor Road in early June.

In fact, Mandsager has spent much of his 12-year tenure as medical center director planning the new facility. He found out Congress had tagged the Alaska Native Medical Center for rebuilding only three months after joining the hospital in September 1985.

"Its really been my whole time here in Alaska," he says

The most satisfying result of the hospital project for Mandsager is Alaska Natives' reaction to the new facility. "Alaska Native people feel proud of this place, that they own it," he says. "They're proud to get care here."

Patients seem pleased with the new building's features, and with the improved service the larger facility offers. The new medical center, at more than 370,000 square feet, is twice as large as the old hospital. The medical center complex looks more like a small college campus with outlying buildings, landscaped grounds, nearby walking paths and a lagoon that attracts Canada geese. The hospital's primary care facility, located across the street from the main building, is managed by Cook Inlet Region Inc.'s Southcentral Foundation. Several other outlying buildings house various health-care organizations, such as the Alaska Native Health Board and a Center for Disease Control and Prevention program. More are expected to relocate to the area.

The main building is lighter (some of the hallways boast skylights) and brighter than the old hospital. The hallways, unforgivingly narrow at the old site, are wide here, with natural wood hand rails and molding. Best of all, the new elevators can be trusted to work properly, a far cry from the ailing contraptions at the old Native hospital, where employees worried about getting stuck.

As for improved services, the new medical center is decentralized, meaning that a patient visiting her cardiologist doesn't have to race across the building to retrieve admission records or to get an X-ray taken. Each specialty clinic handles all of its own services, creating one-stop shopping for patients.

Then there is the dental clinic, an expansive maze of cubicles and rooms where up to 20 patients can be seen at a...