Local, state and federal stakeholders celebrated the VA accepting ownership of Tulsa’s new veterans hospital, which plans to welcome its first patients in late spring.
The new 273,000-square-foot, 58-bed hospital is called the James Mountain Inhofe VA Medical Center in honor of former U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, who died in July 2024.
The $181.4 million project was funded with $70 million in community and donor support, and through the 2016 CHIP IN for Veterans Act. The act authorized the VA to form a public-private partnership for the expedited construction of its health care facilities.
It’s one of the first projects in the U.S. to benefit from the CHIP IN Act, alongside another in Omaha, Nebraska, that resulted in the Omaha VA Ambulatory Care Center.
Oklahoma’s public-private partnership is between Oklahoma State University (OSU), the VA and Veterans Hospital in Tulsa LLC, a subsidiary of the Anne & Henry Zarrow Foundation.
“The general idea behind this unique federal program: it is the community [that] would lead on locating [and] constructing a VA medical center, and then turn it over to the VA to lead on and outfit and operate the facility going forward for veterans,” said Dr. Johnny Stephens, president of the OSU Center for Health Sciences.
In 2020, the state transferred 5.2 acres and the former Kerr-Edmondson buildings to OSU. The project broke ground in 2021.
On Veterans Day this week, hundreds gathered to commemorate the transfer of ownership from OSU and the Veterans Hospital in Tulsa LLC to the VA. Courtney Knoblock, the director of Veterans Hospital in Tulsa LLC, said if the facility currently looks “a bit undercooked,” that is by design.
About a year ago, she said they realized they could save time by letting VA staff start outfitting the hospital while they finished construction.
“And that's what today is all about,” Knoblock said. “We are turning over the keys to the ownership of this facility to the VA so they can now start activating their equipment and fixtures and staffing sooner rather than later.”
Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, led by Inhofe and U.S. Sen. James Lankford, sought the approval of and funding for the hospital in Tulsa. Lankford, U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern and U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin visited Oklahoma to mark Tuesday’s occasion. Each member worked to pass legislation to name the hospital after Inhofe.
Lankford said this project has been years in the making and required out-of-the-box thinking to fund. He said its completion will reap significant benefits for the quality of care Oklahoma veterans can access.
“I want you to understand, as Oklahomans, what we set in front of the nation is a new way of doing things for the nation and for veterans,” Lankford said. “And it's our desire to be able to see this then spread across the rest of the nation, that communities will be coming to Tulsa and saying, ‘Teach me how you did this.’”
Gov. Kevin Stitt said as the new VA hospital comes to fruition, the nearby Oklahoma Psychiatric Care Center is also set to open next year.
“We're standing in the heart of a new $515 million academic medical district that's really transforming our great city of Tulsa,” Stitt said.
“I know Senator Inhofe would have been very, very proud,” Stitt added. “He'd be honored to know that his name is going to be associated with this facility forever, because it stands for service, sacrifice and exemplifies the Oklahoma standard.”
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