Getting sick in Unalaska can often mean flying out to see a doctor in Anchorage. It’s expensive and inconvenient -- and the Iliuliuk Family & Health Services clinic is working to spare residents the hassle.

They’ve introduced new technologies and programs to offer more care here at home.

Now, they’re being honored for those efforts with a pair of awards: one from the Alaska Primary Care Association for innovative programs, and one from the Alaska Rural Health Conference. The clinic received the conference's 2014 outstanding rural health program award in Anchorage last week.

Katy Branch works on rural health at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She headed up the conference steering committee.

"One of the major challenges in Alaska is we have so many facilities that medevac patients," Branch says. "And when we take a patient out of their home community, they’re not able to heal with their family and friends, the environment is different and challenging and it’s costly."

There are 27 rural health centers in 180 sites around the state -- and they served almost 100,000 people in 2012, according to the Division of Public Health.

Here in Unalaska, the IFHS clinic is a main health care option everyone -- from lifelong residents, to visiting professionals, to fishermen and seafood processors.

Medevacs are still common, since IFHS isn’t a full-service hospital. But it is a local patient’s first stop -- and clinic staff try to make it the only stop as often as possible. Branch says they’re impressed with how the clinic is growing.

"IFHS has always been a progressively managed clinic," she says. "So where there could be efficiencies gained through telemedicine or telehealth provisions, they’ve jumped on that."

She says IFHS is the first rural clinic in the state to do remote ultrasounds and echocardiograms and provide consultations with specialists and psychiatrists -- all via secure video-conference. IFHS was also the first rural clinic to offer sleep apnea testing at home.

Eileen Conlon-Scott has been the clinic’s director for the past three years.

"We’re thinking out of the box on how we can bring services here, so people don’t have to spend $1,200 to fly to Anchorage for at least initial services," she says.

And it’s not just about types of care -- Scott says IFHS wants provide new caregivers, too. The clinic has one of top medical student rotation programs in the state.

"And it’s a way for us to introduce them to rural health care and what it’s like treating patients for emergencies in the middle of the Bering Sea," Scott says, "and also a way for us to help recruit -- you know, maybe somebody will really like it out here."

The clinic got three letters of support along with its award nomination: from the Unalaska City School District, Alyeska Seafoods and Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence. The schools credited the clinic for a high student attendance rate. Alyeska was grateful for care for their seasonal workers. And USAFV applauded the clinic’s remote consultation programs.

The conference reports its awards to the National Rural Health Association. That means IFHS’s programs could become an example for other clinics nationwide.