The budget for the construction of a new Chickasaw Nation health facility in Ada was unanimously approved today.
The new, approximately 370,000 square foot facility will almost triple the size of the 130,000 square foot Carl Albert Indian Health Facility.
“This new state-of-the-art facility will enable us to continue improving the level of health services for years to come,” said Gov. Anoatubby. “We appreciate the hard work and dedication of the legislators who have worked alongside us and health service personnel and development staff who have helped develop these plans to dramatically increase the scope of health services available to Indian people in Southern Oklahoma.”
Current plans include a two-story, 70-bed hospital, a level 3 emergency department, an ambulatory care facility, a pharmacy service center, a diagnostic imaging center and a women’s health pavilion, all located on a single campus.
The proposed site for the facility allows easy access to the campus from state Highway 3.
After evaluating the positive and negative aspects of expanding the current facility compared to constructing a new facility, Chickasaw Nation Health System officials made the decision to build a new, state-of-the-art health care facility.
While a study showed almost identical costs for constructing a new facility compared to enlarging and remodeling CAIHF, constructing a new facility at a separate location was shown to provide several advantages.
First, building a new facility will allow patient care at CAIHF to proceed without interruption.
Second, constructing a new facility can be accomplished in considerably less time than expanding the current facility.
Beyond that, a new state-of-the-art facility should provide long term savings in maintenance, utility and operation costs.
Construction of the facility is expected to be completed in approximately three years.
