Having considered divesting itself of hospital ownership for some time, the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and Baptist Medical Center administration agreed to part ways. Ownership transferred to the new nonprofit Oklahoma Healthcare Corp. Baptist Medical Center of Oklahoma was under new management with Jay Henry’s title shifting from “administrator” to “president.” 

Keeping up the pace of innovation, the Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit, Medical Oncology Unit and School for Certified Respiratory Therapy Technicians opened in 1976. Baptist Medical Center’s helicopter landing pad and CT scanner were also put into use that year.

Although all these innovations were positive for the hospital and the people of Oklahoma City, the Baptist General Convention voted to override the consensus of governing board members and physicians on the issue of gender reassignment surgery. These operations had been performed at BMC for a decade without the convention’s knowledge, and when the members of the convention learned of them, they voted to disallow the surgeries.

Shortly after, administrator Jay Henry and executive secretary-treasurer Joe Ingram agreed that the hospital should become independent of the convention and move its management to the Oklahoma Healthcare Corp. The Baptist Medical Center of Oklahoma Foundation Inc. was established to manage funds contributed to the hospital.

With it’s new administrative structure in place, 1978 saw the opening of the PACER Fitness Center, the first-of-its-kind hospital fitness facility to support cardiac rehabilitation and health. Both patients and the public benefited from access to PACER and the customized fitness programs available there.

Also in 1978, Dr. Jack Van Doren Hough, a pioneering ear surgeon, established what later became the Hough Ear Institute. An Ambulatory Surgical Unit and the Telephonic EEG Network were other new innovations at the medical center that year.

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