[1] It acts as both the secondary and tertiary care referral hospital for the Alaska Region of the Indian Health Service (IHS).

[1] The largest hospital in United States Public Health Service history, the center was built with 168 million in federal funds secured by Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska after a thirty-year congressional battle.

[4] Construction was completed by a team of contractors and architects headed by Public Health Service professionals.

The old ANMC facility, built in 1953 as a tuberculosis sanitarium, was seriously damaged in the 1964 Alaska earthquake, and had been slated for replacement for many years.

[4] The five-year construction project for its relocation culminated on June 2, 1997, in a one-day move of all programs, patients and departments from the old facility in downtown Anchorage to the new building six miles away.