Press Release Archive
Nurse Practitioner Earns Doctorate of Nursing Practice Degree
Sunday, December 19th, 2021
Nikki Barker, DNP, APRN-CNP. The Family Nurse Practitioner in
Mercy Health/Love County Clinic has added Doctor of
Nursing Practice to her title.
Nikki Barker, a family nurse practitioner in the Mercy Health/Love County clinic, graduated Saturday, December 18, 2021, with a doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) degree from Chamberlain University.
This is the highest degree in nursing, equipping recipients for research, leadership, and management. Barker is the first doctor of nursing ever to...
Hospital Workers Receive Custom-Fit Shoes
Tuesday, December 14th, 2021
Custom-Fit Shoes: Marneta Dorsey, radiology technician at Mercy Health/Love County
Hospital, tries on new work shoes on December 2, 2021.
An Ardmore foundation gave away 1,400 pairs of custom-fit sneakers in December to area medical workers. Recipients in Love County were employees of Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and the Love County Health Department.
Lesley Dvorak, executive director of Mercy Health Foundation Ardmore, coordinated the project. She said the donor approached...
PA-C Andrea Bean Joins Emergency Room
Friday, December 10th, 2021
Mercy Health/Love County Hospital welcomes Andrea Bean, PA-C. The Physician Assistant joined the emergency department on November 8, 2021.
“Andie” grew up in Dickson. She says she already feels at home in the small town hospital and is happy to be relocating to Southern Oklahoma after 20 years away. She played basketball for Dickson High School and graduated in 1997. She then pursued extensive education in the health field, becoming both a clinician and a professor in Oklahoma City.
Vaccine Expands to Kids 5-11 and Adult Booster Doses
Thursday, November 25th, 2021
Hospital and Health Department Have Vaccine for Ages 5 and Up and Adult Booster Doses
November 2021 has seen an official expansion of COVID-19 vaccine uses for children and adults. The federal Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control recommended on November 3 that the Pfizer vaccine be given to children ages 5 to 11. Previously, eligibility started at age 12. Approximately 375,000 children in Oklahoma are now eligible to be inoculated.
The same agencies, on November 19,...
Hospital Auxiliary Turns 50
Wednesday, November 24th, 2021
Hospital Auxiliary Turns 50: The volunteer group organized on
November 22, 1971, to be ready for the hospital's opening day on
January 30, 1972. Current members marking the anniversary were
(front) Roy Jones, Mary Jones, Joanne Coble, Paulette Manning,
president, and Ron Jacobs. (back) Naomi Lornes, Bonnie
Alexander, and Lula Finch. Not pictured are Sharon Allison, Shirley
Clark, Wilma Easley, Carolyn Lucas, and Teresa Travis
The Love County Health Center Auxiliary marked its 50th anniversary on...
Dr. Joe Witten Returning to Clinic November 8, 2021
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021
Joe Witten, D.O. will once again be seeing patients in the clinic,
hospital, and emergency room, starting November 8, 2021
(Marietta, OK, November 2, 2021) Dr. Joe Witten, D.O., is resuming his career at Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic on Monday, November 8, following a lengthy illness and convalescence. The 53-year-old doctor says he is fortunate to be alive. He credits his coworkers with nursing him back to health during a five-month stay in the Marietta Hospital.
The...
'No Patient Left Alone' Law Effective November 1, 2021
Thursday, October 28th, 2021
New Oklahoma Law Permits a Patient To Have
At Least One Visitor While in the Hospital
November 1, 2021, is the effective date of a new Oklahoma law that will allow hospital patients (minors or adults) to designate a visitor to have unrestricted visitation regardless of emergency declarations. House Bill 2687, titled the "No Patient Left Alone Act," was signed into law on May 13, 2021, by Governor Kevin Stitt after both houses of the Oklahoma Legislature approved.
For a minor child, the...
Brandi Suffal, New PTA, Has Marietta Connections
Friday, October 15th, 2021
Brandi Suffal, the new outpatient Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA) at Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic, makes an instant connection to patients who have an injury or pain.
As a child and youth gymnast, she was always interested in the way the body moves -- and how it deals with injury. While teaching gymnastics part-time, she earned a college degree in kinesiology, the scientific study of human movement.
Kinesiologists examine human movement with an eye to injury prevention...
ER Physician Assistant Honored As Rural PA of Year for 2021
Saturday, October 2nd, 2021
Emergency Room PA Wins Rural PA of Year Award
Maria Maynard of Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic was named Rural Physician Assistant of 2021 by the Oklahoma Academy of Physician Assistants (OAPA) on September 30.
Maynard’s career as a PA has been in the emergency room in Marietta. “Maria strives for excellence in everything she does. Working in the demanding arena of rural emergency medicine and primary care, she has dedicated herself to growth through learning and the...
Walk -In COVID-19 Vaccines at Health Department in Marietta
Friday, September 10th, 2021
Don't Wait -- Vaccinate!
Low-Income Adults: Don't Overlook Expanded Medicaid for Health Insurance
Friday, August 20th, 2021
The People Said YES: Yard signs from the ballot initiative in 2020 that resulted
in Oklahoma residents approving the expansion of Medicaid to cover any low-income adults
ages 19-64. Previously Medicaid, or SoonerCare, was restricted to children
and pregnant women.
Almost Too Good To Be True:
Medicaid Has Expanded To Cover Adults Without Children
For the first time, Oklahoma men and women without child dependents are eligible for Medicaid. It may not have dawned on them yet to look...
COVID-19 Vaccines Compared to Polio Vaccine of 1950s
Friday, August 13th, 2021
Public Attitudes Toward COVID-19 Vaccine and Polio Vaccine
An Op-Ed for the Marietta Monitor By Barbara W. Sessions on August 9, 2021
Recently, commentators have begun to compare anti-vaccine sentiments associated with COVID-19 to public attitudes toward polio and its vaccine in the 1950s. For more than 30 years, polio was a virus that left children and young adults, like President Franklin Roosevelt, paralyzed. Almost everyone knew someone with polio. The highly infectious disease hit...
Uptick in COVID Cases Forecasts Surge
Thursday, August 12th, 2021
COVID WING: Michelle Lively, Respiratory Therapy Department Head, stands outside the dedicated COVID-19 wing of Mercy Health/Love County Hospital on August 5, 2021. The beds are in use again as healthcare workers prepare for a surge of very ill and infectious patients.
As COVID-19 infections are once again going up across the area, coworkers at Mercy Health/Love County Hospital are preparing to return to the frontlines. Some admit to exhaustion surviving the pandemic while trying to...
Get Vaccine and Sign up for Expanded Medicaid at Health Department
Thursday, August 5th, 2021
The Love County Health Department, 200 CE Colston Dr., Marietta, is a resource hotspot!
Go there today to be vaccinated for COVID-19. While you are there, sign up for New Expanded Medicaid. It is for low-income men and women ages 19-64.
New! Medicaid Has Expanded To Cover Adults Ages 19-64!
Friday, July 16th, 2021
A great opportunity is at hand for low-income adults in Love County to obtain health insurance.
SoonerCare has expanded to include eligible adults between the ages of 19-64.
Eligible means having a yearly income of $17,796 or less for an individual or $36,588 or less for a family of four.
There are no health insurance premiums for Expanded Medicaid. Co-pays are $4 for most medical services and prescriptions but are capped at 5% of income per year. Dependent family members also are...
Drop in at Health Department or Clinic for COVID Vaccine
Friday, July 2nd, 2021
Drop in for COVID-19 Vaccine; No Appointment Needed
3 Senior Leaders Retire from Hospital and Clinic
Wednesday, June 16th, 2021
Richard Barker Connie Graham Connie Barker
Three senior members of the leadership team at Mercy Health/ Love County Hospital and Clinic retired in June. It is hard to imagine the place without them.
The retirees are Richard Barker, the hospital’s CEO/administrator, 48 years of service; Connie Graham, the hospital’s business office director, 28 years of service; and Connie Barker, the clinic’s director,...
Good Friends Retire Together from Hospital
Wednesday, June 9th, 2021
Good Friends Retire: Sally Stephens, supervisor, and Paulette Manning, RN
spent a combined 75 years associated with Mercy Health/Love County Hospital.
“I’ve been out here 40 something years. It’s time I give someone else the pleasure of doing what I did,” said Sally Stephens, as she trained a replacement for her job supervising central supply at Mercy Health Love County Hospital. Stephens retired on May 28. “I loved my job. I will miss my friends here and the privilege of serving the...
Vaccine Shots at Pharmacy, Tribe, and Health Department
Friday, May 14th, 2021
Three Ways to Receive a COVID-19 Vaccine!
Lab Director Applauds Speedy Development of Vaccine
Friday, March 26th, 2021
Proud of the Profession: Kelvin McMillan, Laboratory Services Director at Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic, experienced unprecedented laboratory events during the coronavirus pandemic.
Laboratory scientists have distinguished themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers in the profession developed a vaccine in record time. Medical technologists performed laboratory testing at an unprecedented pace and volume to help patients get well.
In Marietta, specialists in...
Legacy Park Celebrates 5th Anniversary
Friday, March 19th, 2021
Honorary Lap Leaders: The state champion Marietta High School
girls and boys cross country teams, led by All-State seniors Ethan
Vinson and Abbie Winchester, round the flag-lined first turn. They are followed
by senior marathoner Arthur Rickets and speed walker Rob Robertson
on the ceremonial first lap around the Legacy Park Recreational Trail
on March 21, 2016. (Photo by Don Sessions)
On Monday, the first weekday of Daily Savings Time, Legacy Park on the hospital grounds in Marietta...
County Records 1,000 COVID Cases in 90 Days
Monday, February 1st, 2021
Post-holiday surges of COVID-19 took a terrific toll in Love County. Testing showed 1,000 persons became infected in the 90 days following the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations, according to the Health Department.
While 342 Love County citizens had ever tested positive for COVID-19 up to November 2, 2020, the number of positives rose sharply to 1,342 by January 27, 2021, an increase of 1,000 infectious patients.
On that date, a total of 1,235 patients...
Vaccine Clinic in Ardmore Continues
Tuesday, January 12th, 2021
For help registering at www.vaccinate.gov, call 211.
The operator will walk you through the registration
steps on the site.
Vaccination Website Schedules Shots
Friday, January 8th, 2021
www.vaccinate.oklahoma.gov
Schedules Shots for Oklahomans
The Health Department currently has no
telephone enrollment available.
(January 10, 2021) Oklahomans can register online immediately for a COVID-19 vaccination and be notified by the Health Department as soon as vaccine becomes available for their age or occupation or health situation.
The website, www.vaccinate.oklahoma.gov, opened on January 7, 2021. Within 48 hours, 270,000 Oklahomans had registered, the Health Department...
COVID-19 Vaccination Available in Ardmore
Monday, January 4th, 2021
Oklahoma has begun phase two of COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Currently, the closest site for Love County residents to be inoculated is the Ardmore Convention Center, 2401 N. Rockford Rd. A weekly vaccine clinic is taking place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays in January.
According to the state’s vaccine distribution plan, first responders are first to get the vaccine under phase two, and then it’s healthcare workers providing care for COVID-19 patients, following by adults 65 and...
Covid Care or Regular Care - We're Here!
Friday, January 1st, 2021