Bristow Hospital Owners Say New Renovations, Upgrades Will Save Lives

Renovations to Bristow's hospital are well underway and the new owners said once it's open, it will have major changes and upgrades that will save a lot of lives.

The hospital closed at the beginning of 2022 and now has new owners.

Those owners said the hospital had great bones and now it will be state of the art.

“It was looked down upon as being tired, worn out and useless," said Peter Juul, Carrus Health Chief Facilities Officer. "That's not the case at all, when we’re done with this place.”

Bristow’s Medical Center closed at the beginning of this year, and Carrus health took over ownership.

There were a lot of updates needed for the hospital, from safety issues to electrical problems and out-of-date equipment. But that has all been changing.

“This was an MRI room, that one is a CT scanner room, (and) this is the ambulance entrance," Juul said.

Juul said the hospital isn’t cosmetically ready yet, but he says they’ve transformed what’s inside these walls.

He said they are using the good bones already here but maximizing space and updating just about everything to make it a state-of-the-art hospital.

“It’s going to be different, when we get this thing done the whole community is going to be surprised," said Bristow Mayor Rick Pinson.

Bristow Mayor Rick Pinson said it’s been difficult having to transfer patients elsewhere this year and says the community deserves this upgrade. A big part of getting this new space is from state leaders like Representative Kyle Hilbert.

“We have to have access to healthcare, just not in the metros, but in rural Oklahoma," said Hilbert.

Employees can’t wait to see it come back to life.

“The community's excited, we're all excited for the employees who have been here all along," said Maegan Blakeman.

“The more we get into it, the more we realize we can create a nice facility here," said Juul.

Carrus has been operating at urgent care in the meantime.

The ER and part of the hospital should be up and running by next year with the rest of the hospital renovations completed by late next year.