The Cherokee Nation now operates the former Claremore Indian Hospital and has renamed it the Claremore Outpatient and Emergency Health Center. The Nation assumed ownership of the hospital on October 1 from the Indian Health Service.
Leaders of the Cherokee Nation and the Indian Health Service said the transition would improve healthcare available in the area. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the nation would elevate healthcare from the “federal government standard to the Cherokee Nation standard.”
The top official for the Indian Health Service in Oklahoma, Rear Admiral Travis Watts, said, “It’s something simply the Federal Government struggles to do. It’s something I know the Cherokee Nation will deliver.”…