Hospital expansion could be worth $1.6B
TAHLEQUAH — W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah was built in 1984 to accommodate 60,000 patient visits a year.
There were nearly seven times that many visits last year at the Cherokee Nation facility.
“It’s been sorely undersized and overutilized for quite some time now,” said Cherokee Principal Chief Bill John Baker.
A new partnership between the tribe and federal government, which could be worth more than $1.6 billion over 20-plus years, has cleared the way for a major expansion to the facility that will meet the growing needs among American Indians with a residual impact on rural health care in eastern Oklahoma.
The Cherokee Nation plans to break ground this spring on a 450,000- square- foot expansion that will house the tribe’s clinics including women’s health, pediatrics, dentistry and optometry.
The current 190,000- square- foot building will be used strictly as a hospital and medical school.
Through the partnership, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service will provide at least $80 million a year for at least 20 years.
The Cherokee Nation is contributing more than $150 million to construction costs.
The project is expected to be complete in late 2019.
“This is a long-term
BY THE NUMBERS process, but we truly believe we will have the best health care system in the state of Oklahoma when we get this all completed,” Baker said.