"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Steel Goes Up On New Health Center

"Steel beams are
now up on the Cherokee Nation Muskogee Health Center, scheduled
to open in 2007."

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – Steel beams are now up and construction is well under way for the new Cherokee Nation Muskogee Health Care Center. The center will offer a large array of health services for the entire family.

Scheduled to open in less than a year, the facility is a cooperative effort between the Cherokee Nation and the Indian Health Service (IHS). The Cherokee Nation is paying an estimated $23 million for the construction of the center. Operational costs are expected to be approximately $17 million per year.

The new center is designed to reduce the burden on other IHS facilities, primarily Hastings Indian Medical Center in Tahlequah, Claremore Indian Hospital and the Cherokee Nation’s Redbird Smith Health Clinic in Sallisaw.

“This is a huge jump forward for the quality of health care for our citizens,” said Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. “It affects not just Muskogee, but every community in northeastern Oklahoma that has an IHS facility or a Cherokee Nation clinic, because once it opens, it will greatly decrease the overcrowding at other facilities.”

The Cherokee Nation operates six primary care health facilities and two satellite clinics within the tribe’s 14-county jurisdictional area.

Currently, the Cherokee Nation Muskogee Clinic serves only women and children. The new Muskogee Health Center will offer a wide range of new out-patient medical services, including family medicine, dental, optometry and pharmacy. In addition the clinic will also provide x-ray, physical therapy and behavioral health services. For more information, contact the Muskogee clinic, phone: 918-687-0201.