OSU Medical Center breaks ground on $175 million expansion in Tulsa

Oklahoma State University is breaking ground this week on a $175 million hospital expansion at their downtown medical center campus.

Finney Mathew with the OSU Medical Center joined News On 6 to tell us more about what's being added.

Q: So what is included in the expansion?

Finney: "So this project is $175,000,000, 3 stories, and we'll have a place where patients can get dropped off and have a coffee bar and registration. Our second floor is where things get exciting, where we have a drug discovery lab. It will poise Tulsa for being a regional leader in biotech and research. And then our third floor is where we'll have our operating rooms."

Q: When people drive by the campus, they'll see a lot of construction going on. That's the parking garage, as you mentioned a moment ago to me.

Finney: "We're super excited about the growth that our facilities had, and because of that, we've had to put in new parking. At one point, we were parking employees behind the hospital so that we could have enough room for employees. But last week, we opened 1,000-spot parking garage so we can take care of all of the families in Tulsa that need care."

Q: Access to health care in Oklahoma for so many people is such a difficult thing. So how do you think this is going to improve that access?

Finney: "You know, our mission is teaching residents and growing physicians, and a core concept of what we do is getting physicians into rural areas, and so that's improving access to care. And with the new ORs and the new training space for residents and fellows, we think that's a great way to improve access all across Oklahoma."

Q: What kind of time frame are we looking at as far as the construction date and when it's going to be open?

Finney: "We opened our garage last week, and immediately we started moving fences so that we could start construction on the brand new surgery center. So it'll take about three years to get that done."