Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic

(May 8, 2024): Clinic director Misti Kirk announced today that the Mercy Health Love County Clinic will reopen May 28. 

Regular clinic hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. will resume.

This follows round-the-clock cleanup since an F4 tornado struck the Love County Health Center and nearby businesses on April 27.

All of the physicians and nurse practitioners will be on duty,  Kirk said.

The exception to normal routine is that the patient entry has changed from the south side to the east side of the building. Prime parking will be on the east side.

"We will have staff members at the door to meet patients," Kirk said.

Meeting patients in person is something the staff has worked intensively to restore, Kirk said.

Within 36 hours after the twister, the clinic telephone 580-276-2400, was back and providers and nurses have been assisting patients with prescriptions.

"Our patients are our family. We want them to stay here. We don't want to lose any of them," Kirk said. 

Hospital director Scott Callender said the clinic building was the most intact resource. Roof patching and clean-up have rendered it ready for patients.

New signage is going up inside and out to help people navigate.

Roof patching is complete throughout the hospital, Callender said.

While tornado cleanup continues, the services of the Mercy Health Love County Food Pantry Serving the Hungry and Food Insecure of Love County have been moved to the Love County Fair Building at 502 N. 2 St., Marietta, OK.

Hours of operation will be 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays, starting on May 14, according to  Love County Senior Volunteer Director Mary Jones.

"This will be a drive-thru handing out of food bags," Jones said. We will continue on this schedule and at the Fair Building until further notice.

Jones also reported that commodity distribution, handled by the Senior Volunteers, has moved from the Growers Market to the Fair Building for now. That distribution occurs the second Friday of every month from 10 a.m. to noon, as before, beginning May 10.

Marnetta Dorsey, Albert Bearden, and Blake Scott show off
the new x-ray equipment in the Radiology Department.
Other technologists serving patients are Curtis Hembree and
Jami Murray.

The radiology department at Mercy Health Love County in Marietta is bustling with new equipment, a new service, and new people.

Last December, the old x-ray equipment was taken out and replaced with a brand new Del Medical OTC 18 table, wall stand, and imaging device. The device is mounted to an overhead crane and moves on vertical and horizontal tracks to swing into the best position for the x-ray exam.

“There are not as many manual steps,” said Blake Scott, a registered Radiologic Technologist and director of radiology, as he demonstrated how easily the x-ray tube tilts and turns at a touch. After that, like an automatic camera, the system automatically focuses and centers on an image receptor.

An x-ray technologist then sends a stream of photons from the x-ray tube through the body part being examined. The energy casts an image of the bone or organ onto a receptor film located in a cassette mounted to the bottom of the table.

Bones can clearly be seen on x-rays so doctors rely on them to look for bone fractures or breaks. They also look at x-rays of various organs, such as lungs, heart, and intestines if wanting help in diagnosing disease. X-rays are painless and the patient wears street clothes or a hospital gown for the procedure.

Another type of imaging, ultrasound, is...

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Have you wanted to shop for a less-expensive Medicare Supplemental (Medigap) Plan but been turned down by insurers due to your health status?

Under a new rule in Oklahoma, Medicare beneficiaries already enrolled in a Medigap plan can now change plans each year without answering a health questionnaire. A “medical underwriting exception” was implemented last fall by the Oklahoma Insurance Department.

It is called the Oklahoma Medigap Birthday Rule because it can be utilized only around the insured’s birthday each year.

One citizen saved almost $500 a month by invoking the Birthday Rule during her birthday month last December. The 75-year-old kidney transplant patient is unable to pass a health questionnaire any other time of the year. But with medical underwriting off the table, her rates plummeted. Instead of paying $619 a month in premiums, she is now paying $140 a month. She successfully changed plans with her same insurance company, in her case choosing to go from Plan F to Plan G.

Beginning on your birthday, you will have 60 calendar days to change your current Medigap policy to one of equal or lesser coverage with no medical questions asked. You can change plans with your current insurance company or, if more cost-effective, change insurance companies.

According to the Oklahoma Insurance Department, an example of changing to a plan of equal value is going from one Plan G to another Plan G. An example of changing to a plan of lesser value is going...

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Marietta - December 18, 2023: 

Giant Food Distribution: With the 53’ long Feed the Children truck in the background at the Mercy Health Love County Growers Market Monday, some of the 25 volunteers who distributed food and resource packages to eligible Love County families take a bow. They are senior students in the ACT Prep class at Turner High School, and include Kadence Wiley, Jaci Hartman, Josey Cavitt, Braylee Foster, Adison Lee, and Peyton Abernathy. At back are Feed the Children Event Manager Aaron Hazel, Chief Corporate and External Affairs Officer Bob Thomas, and Turner High School teacher Brian Sanders. The Feed the Children truck driver (not shown) was Dillon Khal.

Mercy Health Love County and Feed the Children, a leading anti-hunger organization, partnered for a resource rally to distribute food, daily essentials, and resources to 400 pre-identified Love County families Monday, December 18,  at the Growers Market Building on hospital grounds.

In the drive-through event, each participating family received a 25-pound box of food such as canned vegetables, cereal, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, and additional shelf-stable food items; 15-pound box of essentials like shampoo, razors, lotion, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and feminine hygiene products; a dignity box filled with Avon products; children's books and toys.

The hospital's licensed food pantry serving the hungry and food insecure of Love County, led by Lula Finch, and the...

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