BRISTOW, Okla. — Bristow’s only acute care hospital, the Bristow Medical Center, is about to come under new management. The transition will involve a gap in services.

FOX23 News spoke with Bristow’s city attorney, Beth Anne Childs, who is also the attorney for the Bristow Hospital Authority.

The Authority awarded the bid to Carrus Health out of Sherman, Texas to provide healthcare services beginning January first and build a new hospital at the same property that is owned by the city.

Carrus Health beat out several other proposals, including one from Bristow Endeavor Healthcare, which currently manages the facility.

At midnight on December 31st, all services at Bristow Medical Center will cease operation.

“Representatives of Carrus have been working with representatives of Endeaver,” said Beth Anne Childs, “turning over hospital operations is not an easy task.”

The 15-bed hospital, which has an emergency room, has been run by Bristow Endeavor Healthcare for 12-years.

They will be handing the reins over to Carrus Health, and assume full management of the site on January 1st.

“Because Carrus doesn’t yet have a license to operate the facility,” said Childs, “there will be a gap in services available which understandably is frustrating for the community.”

Childs says they hope to resume services in less than 30 days.

Carrus may also have to do some capital improvement projects based on the results of a state survey required before resuming operations.

“There may have to be some modifications that we make before we’re able to reopen,” said Jordyn Case, a public relations manager for Carrus Health.

Funding from the city tax that was raised will go towards to the establishment of a new 25-bed hospital, according to Case.

As part of their bid proposal, Carrus has agreed to shoulder the burden of the debt associated with building a new hospital.

Construction of the new state-of-the-art facility is expected to get underway in six months if they secure the license from the state within the next thirty days.

In the meantime, current employees have already been offered the opportunity to re-apply for their positions with Carrus Health. While headquartered in Texas, the company has several locations in Oklahoma.

Statement from Owner/CEO of Bristow Endeavor Healthcare:

Bristow Endeavor Healthcare’s twelve year tenure at Bristow Medical Center is coming to a close later this week. This is bittersweet for myself, my leadership team, and the staff who have dedicated their professional lives to serving the healthcare needs of the greater Bristow area. We feel so proud of the fact that we were able to keep the doors of Bristow Medical Center open, and often have maintained the mindset that even if we didn’t reach our ultimate goal of opening a new facility in Bristow, that at least the community would have “one more day” of healthcare. There were times when it was dicey and uncertainty washed over my leadership team, but we always rallied and made something out of nothing to keep those doors open without sacrificing the quality of care we provided. After working hard to get a tax passed to continually support healthcare in Bristow, The Bristow Hospital Authority made the decision to rethink our position as operator of Bristow Medical Center. The Bristow Hospital Authority decided to initiate a Request-for-Proposal process where they accepted bids for the hospital operations. They chose to move forward with a different operator which solidified the exit date for Bristow Endeavor Healthcare as December 31st, 2021 just before midnight. The next operator will be taking over operations after our departure. Our organization will still have a place within this community as we move forward with operations at Bristow Family Practice / Urgent Care and CORE Outreach Specialists. We feel these services remain vital to the Bristow community.

-Jan Winter (Clark) Owner/CEO of Bristow Endeavor Healthcare

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