Press Releases
New Hospital Beds Arrive
Posted on Friday, August 18th, 2023
“They told me I was the first patient in one of these new beds, and I have slept like a rock,” said Dorothy Cantley on August 14 at Mercy Health Love County Hospital.
“This mattress is comfortable as everything,” she continued. “The nurse said she had checked on me several times in the night and that I was sleeping like a baby every time.”
The patient’s positive assessment is just more good news for the hospital staff. The acquisition of 15 Hill-Rom Centrella Smart+ beds was financed through a grant earlier in 2023 from the Southern Oklahoma Memorial Foundation.
The new equipment is replacing beds from 2006. Hospital beds now feature sensory mattresses that hold their shape to conform to the patient’s contour even while the patient is moving to a sitting or flat position. Also, the beds are all electric with no hydraulics.
Numerous safety lights allow nurses or family caregivers to see at a glance whether side rails are properly positioned and the bed is at its lowest, safest position for fall prevention.
“I would like to take this bed home with me, and take the nurses home with me, too. Everybody here has gone out of their way to see that I am well taken care of,”Cantley said.
Grant Provides for New Hospital Beds
Posted on Friday, July 7th, 2023
Artwork depicts the Centrella Smart+
beds on order for Mercy Health Love County
Hospital.
!-- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--
!--[endif]--
Upscale new hospital beds are on order for Mercy Health Love County Hospital. Director of Nursing Marie Ross calls them the “Cadillac version” of beds that have been in use since 2006.
Hill-Rom Centrella Smart+ beds soon will arrive, thanks to a grant from the Southern Oklahoma Memorial Foundation (SOMF) in Ardmore. The funds are enabling the Marietta hospital to replace 15 of the 20 beds in the nursing wing, according to W. Scott Callender, hospital administrator and CEO.
“We are very grateful to SOMF for granting us the funds. The new beds will benefit patients and help nurses monitor their condition and keep them safe,” Callender said.
Ross said the medical staff is elated for the Centrella bed’s comfort settings for patients and the built in sensors that will communicate to nurses important information about patient conditions.
A sensor for patient movement allows nurses to set a bed exit alarm. The alarm sounds at the nurses’ station if a patient tries to leave the bed. Deploying an auto reset feature automatically returns the exit alarm to the “on” position when the patient is back in bed.
A feature called “Safe View” projects lights on the floor beneath the foot section. Hill-Rom account executive Jeff Harris explained, “The settings reveal three things: Is the bed in the lowest position? That is the...
Dr. Margaret Western Retires
Posted on Friday, June 9th, 2023
Dr. Western Ends Career as Accomplished Chemist and M.D.
Ready for Retirement: Margaret “Max” Western, M.D. is seen in her clinic office at Mercy Health Love County last week. She retired from medicine on May 31, 2023.
Spending time with her five grandchildren, ages 18-29, and her 91-year-old mother were happy thoughts of Dr. Margaret “Max” Western, as she closed her office at Mercy Health Love County on May 31 and retired from medicine.
“I will be traveling to Texas to see more of them, and while I’m home (at Falconhead), I will begin scrapbooking all the pictures I’ve collected of them,” the friendly doctor, age 70, said.
In eight years at the hospital, clinic, ER, and area nursing homes, Dr. Western built up quite a practice. She estimated having 800-1,000 patients in her care over the eight years. “I will miss my patients most of all,” Dr. Western said.
“By and large, I improved the lives of all of them. I helped many people quit smoking or cut back. I helped others quit alcohol. My advice was to take things step by step. Don’t look at the BMI chart on obesity and think you have to accomplish everything at once. Gradually cut back on what is leading to illness until you get in a better place.”
“In my practice, I served several three and four generation families,” she added.” It felt good to have whole families put their confidence in me.” An important asset was her fluency in both English and Spanish.
Medicine was Dr. Western’s second career, but...
Dr. Stacy Goode Joins Hospital and Clinic
Posted on Friday, June 2nd, 2023
Welcome, Dr. Stacy Goode!
Dr. Stacy C. Goode, M.D., is a Board-Certified family physician
“Stay humble, work hard, be kind,” reads one of several motivational signs in the office of Dr. Stacy Goode, M.D. The family doctor has joined Mercy Health Love County. She will see patients in the clinic, hospital, and emergency department.
Her first day in Marietta was May 22, 2023, and she liked what she calls her “new home.”
“I am blessed to be here in this position,” Dr. Goode said. “I love the area, the scenery, and the patient population. The clinic is a true extension of the community, so that patients and staff are like a family.”
Dr. Goode (rhymes with food) has a lengthy and diverse interest in the medical field that started in childhood and led her to undergraduate research and medical school. She has been a family doctor since 2007.
She is settling in Falconhead Resort from Lawton, where she practiced in the adult outpatient department of Lawton Indian Hospital. She also has experience in military family care with a VA hospital in Texas.
As a young woman, Dr. Goode served in the U.S. Army Reserve. The Army trained her as an occupational therapy assistant. Doctors in her place of practice encouraged her to become a physician. “I knew I wanted a career that allowed me the privilege of helping patients with the decision-making that a provider possesses,” she said.
Goode distinguished herself in college at the University of Alabama. She secured funding...