The Cherokee Nation has completed a US$470 million (AUD 671 million) replacement hospital in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, expanding the tribe's health care capacity with a six-story, 400,000-square-foot facility that opened to patients July 11.

Tribal Business News reports the new WW Hastings Hospital includes 127 beds and adds services including a neonatal intensive care unit, hospice care, a surgical center and a rooftop helipad. The facility replaces the tribe's existing 180,000-square-foot hospital, which opened in the mid-1980s.

The hospital connects by skybridge to the Cherokee Nation Outpatient Health Center, creating an integrated medical campus. Additional services include emergency and intensive care, imaging, laboratory and pharmacy operations.

Tribal Business News reports the project is part of roughly US$1.12 billion the Cherokee Nation has invested in health care facilities and equipment over the past decade.

According to the tribe's 2025 economic impact report, Cherokee Nation Health Services generated more than US$2 billion in statewide economic output during fiscal year 2025 while supporting nearly 11,500 jobs.

WW Hastings Hospital currently employs about 700 health care workers and it is understood Cherokee Nation plans to add another 200 positions in fiscal year 2027.

The former hospital will be renovated into the Cherokee Nation Nursing and Allied Health Education Center through a partnership with the University of Oklahoma, Tribal Business News reports.

The US$30 million project will house a University of Oklahoma College of Nursing campus and is expected to open in 2027 as part of the tribe's effort to expand Oklahoma's health care workforce.