BRISTOW, Okla. — Bristow’s hospital is changing hands at midnight on December 31st but it’s not clear yet whether it will reopen on January 1st under the new operators.
Several Bristow residents and even employees have emailed us concerned about what’s going to happen.
Residents in this rural Creek County community don’t have many options when it comes to healthcare so word that the current operation of the Bristow Medical Center will end December 31st has many worried.
“Time is crucial if you're having a heart attack which we have been through that before,” Ms. Abraham, a Bristow resident, said.
This Bristow resident is concerned.
She says her dad will be 94 soon, and since he has heart issues, if he needs to go to the hospital and this one is closed, she would have to drive quite a ways to get him care.
“Sapulpa is probably about a 30-minute drive and Tulsa could be anywhere from 45 to an hour depending on traffic and the time of day,” Ms. Abraham said.
Right now, it’s unclear what will happen this weekend.
The Bristow Medical Center is currently operated by Bristow Endeavor Healthcare.
At midnight on December 31st, they say they will cease operations per the termination of their lease by the city.
Endeavor has been running the facility since 2009.
They say they purchased operations in 2014.
During that time, they say the hospital was running in the red.
To solve that problem, they opened another healthcare facility in Jenks under the same hospital license to subsidize the Bristow facility.
After the City of Bristow decided to not renew the endeavors lease, the city approved a bid from Carrus Health to take over.
But it’s still unclear whether they will be ready to open on January 1st.
For one resident, he says people travel to other hospitals anyway.
“People go out of town. Everyone goes to Cushing, to Okmulgee, to Sapulpa,” Johnny Spencer said.
Employees we talked to are concerned about the facility closing in the middle of a pandemic and a new variant.
Carrus Health tells me they have been working to get a license for the hospital since they were awarded the bid in June.
Although, a spokesperson for Carrus Health says the facility is old and run down and they need to address those issues before the state will give them a license to operate.
But it’s possible they won’t be able to open the hospital on January 1st.
While others are concerned about that, Spencer says he’s not.
“I got ran over by a semi-truck and I was in the Cushing hospital and I was in the Okmulgee hospital because they gave me something that this hospital couldn’t give,” Spencer said.
We will stay in touch with Carrus Health to find out when they hope to reopen the hospital.
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