Haskell plans new health clinic, construction expected within five years
A new Haskell health clinic could open by 2031, with the current 1978 center staying open and later becoming training space for Native students.
Haskell Indian Nations University and the Indian Health Service have moved a new campus health clinic into planning, with construction expected in the next three to five years. Shannon Lowe said the project is new construction, not a remodel, and that the federal plan keeps care running while the campus waits for a larger, modern facility.
The agreement announced June 1 gave Indian Health Service the ability to build on 4.4 acres of Haskell land. The project is meant to expand health care access for Lawrence and create more education and workforce training opportunities for Native students, with planning, land transfer and other preparatory work expected over the next year. Lowe said the new building could open by 2031 at the latest, depending on design and federal approval steps.
For now, the Haskell Indian Health Center continues to operate at 2415 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence. Indian Health Service says the clinic is an accredited ambulatory facility that opened in 1978 on the edge of Haskell Indian Nations University, and its patient population rises during the Haskell and University of Kansas school year. That seasonal pressure is one reason the current facility matters so much to students, staff and nearby families while the new project works through federal and campus steps.
Haskell says it averages about 1,000 students per semester, and all of them are members of federally recognized tribes. After the new clinic opens, the current building would return to Haskell for academic and workforce-training uses, including health professions programs tied to medical records, health technology and administration. Lowe also pointed to the Indian Health Service Pathways Program as one way the project could give students real work experience and federal service credit.
For Douglas County, the clinic plan is more than a building project. It ties together health access, campus growth and Native workforce development on a site that already serves Lawrence and the region, and the next year of land transfer, design work and federal approvals will show whether the promise moves on schedule or stalls before construction starts.
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