New health clinic to open in Skiatook
BY RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Sunday, February 03, 2013
2/03/13 at 5:11 AM
SKIATOOK - The city is planning to use federal and tribal funds to convert an old school building into a health clinic.
Spearheaded by the local FOCUS on Health group, the project would place the medical facility in the city's former junior high school on South Osage Avenue, said city councilor J.D. Prather, a member of FOCUS on Health. Skiatook also would move its senior center there.
Renovation of the building, purchased from the school district about 10 years ago, can begin once the municipality works out a lease agreement with FOCUS, Prather said. Late last year, the Osage Nation donated $75,000 to the project, he said.
FOCUS also received a Rural Business Enterprise Grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the amount of $99,600, Prather said.
"It's not only going to be a good clinic for a lot of people," Mayor Josh Brown said, "it's also going to put that building to use."
An urban design group from the University of Oklahoma has designed the floor plan, which will feature physician areas and departments for mental health, and the Osage County Health Department, Prather said.
The clinic will offer basic medical care, as well as vaccinations, prenatal care and physical examinations for high school athletes, he said.
The clinic will begin as a two-day-a-week facility and feature hours potentially as late as 9 p.m., he said.
It will accept Medicare and Medicaid patents, Prather said.
"No patient will be turned down," he said. "If someone is just broke, out of job, has no money, he will be treated for free."
The clinic is expected to start with a 10-year lease, "for, like, a dollar a year," with the city paying for the utilities the first five years, Prather said. The facility, scheduled to open by mid-summer, is expected to create about seven jobs.
"We're looking at serving people from Collinsville, Sperry, Avant, even the north side of Tulsa," Brown said.
Jack Rankin did the initial legwork on behalf of FOCUS on Health. Also instrumental since the start of the project have been fellow FOCUS members Arthur Anderson, Bob Breuning, Bud Ricketts and Beverly Dollar, Prather said.
"I think the whole town's excited about it," Prather said. "Once the word spreads, it's going to get a lot of business."
Original Print Headline: Health clinic to open in Skiatook
Rhett Morgan 918-581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com
