This Friday, the State of Oklahoma will award the Surgery Center of Oklahoma their “Entrepreneurial Excellence in Oklahoma” award.  At 1:00 p.m. Dr. Lantier, myself and available staff will accept this award on behalf of the entire staff from the Department of Labor’s commissioner, Mark Costello.  

The staff at the labor department extended invitations to various dignitaries and the media but Dr. Lantier and I would like to extend an invitation to anyone and everyone that would like to attend this presentation.  Please join us this Friday in a rare display:  government recognizing entrepreneurship, in particular, entrepreneurship free of state or federal grant (taxpayer) money.  

We are very pleased to have been selected for this award and hope that other states will follow the lead of Oklahoma’s legislators past and present, in creating a climate where the free market can thrive in the delivery of medical care, an approach whose time has finally come, and one that has already shown itself to be the great medical hope of all, particularly the poor.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.