Cherokee Nation Health Services reports record October births, adds Nowata physical therapy and pharmacy app

The Cherokee Nation Health Committee heard a report from Doctor Jones on health services activity, including a record month of births and new service lines.

Doctor Jones said the system recorded 110 births in October, “that was our biggest month ever on record,” and noted the system reached the “thousand mark” for the year in mid-November. He said the organization is closely tracking births and other measures as they combine reporting across facilities.

The health services chief announced a new physical therapy service line in Nowata that began Dec. 8 to bring services closer to patients who previously had to travel, and encouraged committee members to use the new Cherokee Nation pharmacy mobile app. “You can go on to the app store and type in Cherokee Nation, pharmacy. It’s the first one that pops up,” Jones said, and staff are seeing positive feedback.

Jones also explained a change in metrics for internal reporting: instead of counting only patient visits, staff will report “patient services” to capture multiple distinct services delivered during one visit (for example, a provider visit plus pharmacy services). The department reviewed the last five years of data to prepare the change and warned numbers will rise under the new metric because one visit can now produce multiple service counts.

When Councilor Danny Callison asked whether reporting now includes Claremore, Jones said combined reporting began Oct. 1 and offered to bring the local administrator (Chan Larry) for further clarifications if the committee requested them.

The committee also recognized hospital security officer Jesse Cotter for helping rescue a person from a vehicle fire; Jones said he had seen a video shared on social media of the incident.

The committee took no formal action tied to program launches during this report; the meeting moved on after members asked procedural questions and received clarifications.