Cherokee Nation taking over Claremore Indian Hospital, planning $255M outpatient facility

The Cherokee Nation will take over operations at the Claremore Indian Hospital on October 1st of this year, and will no longer see people for inpatient services.

The Cherokee Nation says it plans to build a new $255 million dollar out-patient facility in Claremore with an ER, to replace the current Indian Hospital that's run by the federal government.

A lot of people are afraid several services will be cut, but the nation says there's a lot of misinformation with this announcement.

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1. Claremore Indian Hospital employees voice concerns as Cherokee Nation takes over operations

Cherokee Nation Health Services CEO Dr. R. Stephen Jones says the rumor is this is a mass layoff, but he says that's not true. He says starting next week they will be offering the current employees, jobs with the Cherokee Nation. He says those jobs will be offered to them exclusively first, before they pursue secondary resources.

The Claremore Indian Hospital is run by the Indian Health Service, and is the only federally run healthcare facility for Native Americans within the Cherokee Nation. Indian Health Service and the Cherokee Nation have been negotiating since last fall about the future of the nearly 50-year-old hospital.

Cherokee Nation officials say the current facility is not up to their standards and needs improvements and repairs that would cost more than $100 million dollars in order to keep it open as an impatient facility. They say on average, there are fewer than four patients a day at the hospital.

"Our desire is to not create a brand new workforce. Our desire is to expand services there and bring as many people as we can that make financial sense into our workforce and change the culture there and bring it up to what level of care and what level of expectation we have on ourselves for Cherokee Nation Health Services," said Jones.

People are also worried about where they're going to be able to go for inpatient services now. Jones says they are building partnerships with other facilities so people don't have to travel far from home.

The Cherokee Nation plans to open the new outpatient hospital in Claremore in 2027.