Dr. Michelle Bates
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - Northeastern Health System Sequoyah hospital in Sallisaw has announced a new partnership with the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.
The OSU Center for Health Sciences will be staffing NHS Sequoyah hospital's emergency room with physicians who are specialty trained in emergency medicine.
Dr. Michelle Bates, Medical Director of the emergency department at NHS Sequoyah, says she is excited to be a part of the collaboration between OSU and NHS Sequoyah hospital.
"We will be the first group that's been here that is all emergency medicine trained physicians," Bates says. "We have all been trained to take care of anything and everything that your family could possibly need to be seen for."
Bates says the team of physicians from the OSU Center for Health Sciences maintains close connections with the university and the medical school. These connections will allow ER staff at NHS Sequoyah to collaborate with other hospitals staffed by OSU-trained physicians. This will help to facilitate patient transfers and make delivering higher levels of patient care easier.
NHS Sequoyah Chief Operations Officer Eric Carter says the hospital's relationship with the OSU Center for Health Sciences is the latest example of NHS Sequoyah striving to bring outstanding patient care to the community. Carter says NHS Sequoyah's affiliate hospital in Tahlequah has also started using ER physicians from the OSU system.
"It gives us a lot more opportunities to access a higher level of patient care than you will normally find at a rural hospital," Carter says.
Both Carter and Bates believe NHS Sequoyah has the technology and staffing to provide excellent emergency patient care.
"We are providing care here the same way we would at any OSU facility," Bates says. "We have nearly all the same capabilities here as far as imaging...among other things, which are excellent and help us provide the best care."
NHS Sequoyah hospital has been serving Sequoyah County since 1949. The Center for Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University recently ranked in the top ten nationally for providing care in medically underserved areas and serving rural areas.
KXMX Staff Writer
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