Officials of the Cherokee Nation and Indian Health Service broke ground Friday on a 469,000-square-foot expansion at W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah, Okla., reports Tulsa World.
Here are four things to know.
1. Plans call for the construction of a four-story building, which will house the hospital's outpatient programs, including optometry, podiatry and behavioral health.
2. The expansion stems from a joint venture agreement the Cherokee tribe and Indian Health Service entered last year. The tribe will finance the construction project, expected to cost $150 million, as well as installation of all necessary equipment.
3. The Indian Health Service will fund up to 85 percent of the hospital's staffing and operation costs — projected to be about $80 million a year — for at least 20 years.
4. The construction project will create about 350 local jobs. Once completed in 2019, the new facility will add another 850 healthcare positions at the hospital.