McAlester Cancer Patients Share Concerns After Hospital Declines To Renew Contract With Oklahoma Cancer Specialists And Research Institute

People in McAlester are concerned after learning the hospital is ending its relationship with the company that runs the cancer center.

McAlester Regional Health Center said it doesn't plan to renew the lease with Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute, news which came as a shock to the provider. 

Patients said the folks who work at the cancer center have felt like family, seeing them at their best and their worst.

After hearing the news, they're concerned about what the future of the cancer center and their treatments look like.

"We go way back, way back," Lisa Turney said, laughing with her friend Juanita Orler.

The ladies seemed like they'd been friends forever, but they didn't have a special bond until a few years ago.

"Even though we had been acquaintances back in the day, we're sisters now," Turney said.

Sisters because they have something in common that tried to take their lives.

"Cancer connects you, and it doesn't matter what kind of cancer that you have; cancer connects you," Turney said.

The two women have both battled different kinds of cancer.

"I was diagnosed in 2014, I had 16 chemo, 33 radiation treatments," Orler said, talking about her battle with stage 3 breast cancer, which she is now a survivor of.

Lisa Turney was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma in 2021.

"During the process of the treatment for the lymphoma, they also found that I also had early-stage lung cancer," she said.

They went through most of their treatments in the cancer center at the McAlester Regional Health Center, but now the center will have new leadership and new doctors.

A statement from the hospital said, "The cancer center is not closing," and "MRHC has gained a new partner to provide cancer care in the community."

But patients are wondering why.

"Why would we want another cancer center of any kind that the doctors don’t know our cases and we don’t know them? I don't understand what they're thinking," Orler said.

Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute said it was not involved in the decision. Lisa and Juanita said it was the OCSRI staff that saved their lives, and they didn't want to see them leave.

"If it wasn't for Dr. Moussa and his staff here, then we wouldn't be here. They were a godsend," Turney said.

Although the lease with the Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute is up on February 28th, the hospital does not expect them to be out by the end of this month.