Connie Davis struggled to find beds as an emergency room nurse in the late 1990s at W.W. Hastings Hospital. She had nine beds for more than 40,000 patient visits a year. “I know firsthand the challenge of not having enough room, of not having enough money for your patients,” she said. Cherokee Nation officials announced Thursday morning a partnership with Indian Health Service that would increase the annual federal funding the tribe receives for health care. “When I saw people need help and they had nowhere to go, not enough staff to care for them, it made me feel helpless as a provider,” Davis said. “It was just gut-wrenching to go home sometimes when I knew people were suffering from the lack of access.” Davis, the executive director of Cherokee Health Services, is seeing that struggle unravel. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker expects the funding to more than double to $30 million annually, he said. “With this, there will be no more excuse for no access,” Davis said. The partnership and additional funding will contribute to the tribe’s commitment of providing world-class health care, Baker said. “Our partnership will improve the health outcomes for Cherokees for the next two to three generations and beyond,” Baker said. Cherokee officials want to expand W.W. Hastings Hospital to accommodate more than 400,000 patient visits a year, Davis said. The expanded hospital campus will help alleviate the strain on the current hospital, which was built 30 years ago to serve 65,000 outpatient visits each year. “We don’t want to accept substandard health care,” Davis said. “Right now, our doctors work out of one room when they really need three to four exam rooms to properly address patients, not rush them in and out.” The nation will receive the federal funds through IHS’s Joint Venture Projects Program. The program will fund staff, operations and maintenance of a facility if the tribe commits to building health care infrastructure, according to the IHS website. As part of the agreement between the Cherokee Nation and IHS, the tribe will fund the construction of a more than 250,000-square-foot facility on the hospital’s Tahlequah campus. IHS will provide up to $30 million per year for 20 years for staffing and operations. IHS is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Native Alaskans. The Cherokee Nation, the largest recognized tribe in the U.S., also has the largest tribal health system in the U.S. The nation’s health services are also the largest tribal health system in the U.S. Cherokee Health Services includes a network of eight health centers and a hospital and provide EMS, diabetes services, cancer care, behavioral health services and more.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 11:16:16 +0000
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