Southcentral Foundation sends visiting providers to Tyonek, Tatitlek and Nanwalek next week

Four Southcentral Foundation clinics open Monday in Tyonek, Tatitlek and Nanwalek, with Tyonek relying on rotating visits since it has no resident doctor.

Christopher Chronister, a nurse practitioner, holds a one-day primary care clinic in Tyonek on Sept. 14. Alfred Swanson, a physician, runs primary care in Tatitlek from Sept. 14 to 21, while Sam Castles, a physician, does the same in Nanwalek from Sept. 14 to 18. Abby DeBonis, a dentist, holds a dental clinic in Tyonek over the same five days, according to the health system's public event listings.

Between those visits, Tyonek's care rests on one person: Robert Stephan, the village's only community health aide, working out of a clinic equipped for X-rays and laboratory tests. Primary care providers reach Tyonek once every two months. The village has 150 to 200 residents, a number that can double or triple during summer fishing season.

Southcentral Foundation lists Tyonek among seven Cook Inlet Region villages it serves directly, supporting local care for more than 5,000 customer-owners. Tatitlek, on Prince William Sound, and Nanwalek, at the mouth of Cook Inlet, are Anchorage Service Unit villages it reaches through Chugachmiut.

Southcentral Foundation was incorporated in 1982 under Cook Inlet Region Inc., known as CIRI, and serves about 65,000 Alaska Native and Indigenous people in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and 55 rural villages. Its own website puts the figure higher, at more than 70,000 in the Indian Health Service's Anchorage Service Unit. Polly Andrews, a senior learning and development advisor, told an April 21 hearing of the Alaska State House Tribal Affairs Committee: "We are a nonprofit healthcare organization for the SIRI region and currently serving 70,000 people with 12 rural clinics throughout Alaska."