The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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December 10, 2009

Cherokee clinic has received $2.8 million

Staff reports



CHEROKEE — Great Salt Plains Health Center has received $2.8 million to renovate the former Alfalfa County Hospital into an outpatient clinic.

The award was announced by the Federal Bureau of Primary Health Care, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

 “We are very happy to be a part of the solution to health care access problems in northwest Oklahoma,” said Tim Starkey, GSPHC executive director. “Currently, Dr. Keenan Ferguson is the only doctor in full-time practice in Alfalfa County. Additionally, after renovation is complete, patients in Alfalfa County will be able to get their X-rays done in Cherokee. Services such as these have not been available since the hospital was closed more than 10 years ago.”

The old hospital is located in the same block as GSPHC and has been unoccupied since the 1990s. The health center contracted with Mc-Farland Davies Architects, of Tulsa, to develop plans for renovation of the facility in June in hopes of securing the economic stimulus award.

 During a presentation in June, Connie S. McFarland, of McFarland Davies Architects, presented the architect’s preliminary site plan and floor plan for the facility.

“When we put together all of the needs for the health center we needed just under 16,000 square feet. It just so happens that the building is a 16,000-square-foot facility,” she said. “We did not set out to occupy the entire facility, it just happened that way. Our goal is to preserve as much of the original facility as possible and still create simple usable workspace for the health center.”

 Since June, plans have been finalized to include enough space for two family medicine practitioners, two obstetrics and gynecology practitioners, one dentist and three behavioral health practitioners.

 Karen Hawkins, GSPHC board president, said board members have dreamed of bringing full-service primary health care back to Cherokee. 

Plans will be ready for bidding within a few weeks, with construction scheduled to begin in a few months.

Located at 400 S. Ohio, Great Salt Plains Health Center is a federally qualified health center that provides primary health care, dental and behavioral health services to Cherokee and the surrounding area.

Medical director Keenan Ferguson, DO, and nurse practitioner Kristen Rickertsen, practice family medicine at the GSPHC. Dennis McFadden, DO, provides obstetrics and gynecology services, and Linda Peck, LPC, offers counseling services. Dental services provided by Oklahoma Dental Foundation are limited but will be available full time once the expansion project is complete.

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