Fond Farewell -- Charlene Frazier, with husband Jimmie, retired after 34 years with Love County Health Center and Mercy Health/Love County.
After 34 years, Charlene Frazier has ended her career as business office director at Mercy Health/Love County.
About 50 coworkers honored her at a surprise retirement party at the hospital in November.
The handful of coworkers who have worked longer talked about Frazier’s love for people and her quiet constancy.
“She has been a friend of colleagues and a confidante,” said Richard Barker, administrator and CEO.
Her assignments with the hospital over the years have included posting payments from patients, billing insurance companies, handling payroll time records for the nursing department, and overseeing the dietary and housekeeping departments.
The hospital was only five years old in 1977 when Frazier applied for an opening as a telephone switchboard operator.
“The switchboard was open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Two of us worked it, me from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., then a high school student. I remember working weekends and the student’s days off,” she said.
She moved up as people left or business processes changed. “I never intended to stay this long, but I was always eager to learn and to take classes in new subjects. I wasn’t afraid to learn something new or ask for help,” Frazier said.
As a 20-year member of the hospital’s Mission Team, Frazier had a hand in planning building improvements...
Super Users of Epic System: Connie Graham (center) introduces registered nurses Kim Collins (l) and Katherine Miller to the Epic electronic health record system during training at Mercy Health/Love County.
Paperless Recordkeeping: Linda Dixon, health information manager, shows how the paper record of a typical hospital stay has been reduced from hundreds of pages (right) to seven. Those seven are patient signature pages. They are scanned to become part of a fully electronic record, and then shredded.
Mercy Health/Love County Hospital introduced Epic, an electronic health record system, on September 10. The benefits for hospital patients and the coworkers who take care of them already are showing up.
Gone are doctors’ orders written with pen on paper, along with the clipboards, folders, and file rooms required to contain and store them.
With Epic, doctors, nurses, and clinical coworkers in every department of the hospital and emergency room are using laptop computers to compile an electronic record.
The information is password protected, and departments have access only to the information related to their area of responsibility.
A key benefit to patients is that Epic is also used by Mercy Memorial in Ardmore, Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City, and numerous other Sisters of Mercy facilities in Oklahoma and elsewhere.
That means, according to Linda Dixon, health information manager, that patients who transfer between Mercy...
Hospital pharmacist Dorothy Gourley received the Bowl of Hygeia Award from the Oklahoma Pharmacists Association during the OPHA 2011 state convention.
Bowl of Hygeia is the highest award for community service from Oklahoma pharmacists. “It’s prestigious. I am extremely grateful to have been chosen by my peers,” Gourley said.
Gourley has been serving Mercy Health/Love County since 1984, first as resident pharmacist and presently as consultant pharmacist. Under her guidance, the hospital has adopted a computerized medication dispensing system.
Her career began in 1967 and includes experience as a retail pharmacist, chain pharmacist manager, hospital pharmacist, and consultant pharmacist to rural hospitals. She lives in Ardmore.
Throughout her career, Gourley has been a leader in professional associations. She is serving her second 5-year term on the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy, a gubernatorial appointment. She served as president of the Board and is currently vice-president. She chaired a committee to write new rules for hospital drug rooms. She served on an advisory board to the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority for the Medicaid drug program. She represented the Oklahoma Board on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
She has been president of the Oklahoma Pharmacists Association. She has served on legislative committees for both the OPHA and the Oklahoma Society of Health-System Pharmacists....
Temp in the A Range: School nurse Sheila Nipp, R.N., take the temperature of Turner School third grader Luke O'Dell.
Nurse Wears All School Colors: School nurse Sheila Nipp, R.N., center, visits with Marie Ross, R.N., hospital director of nursing (left) and clinic nurse Teresa Steen, R.N.
Mercy Health/Love County has hired Sheila Nipp, R.N., to enhance children’s health as a school nurse.
The school nurse is a new community service of the hospital/clinic in partnership with the area Health Department.
“It’s great for us to solve health issues at school,” said Marie Ross, R.N., hospital director of nursing.
Nipp’s schedule takes her to schools in Marietta on Monday and Thursday; Turner on Tuesday; Thackerville on Wednesday; and Greenville on Friday.
She spends a full day at each stop.
During her first week, Nipp came to the aid of students with conditions as varied as diabetes, asthma, and nausea.
She also read school policies on health-related issues and reviewed immunization records.
As a registered nurse, she is licensed to assess patients and provide basic first aid. She will call parents when the child needs to go home or to the doctor, or call an ambulance for emergency cases.
“It’s nice to have someone with more training in this area than us,” said Turner School Superintendent Leslie Christian.
“The school nurse is a screener and she alerts parents to follow up on what she is seeing. If a student has a hard...
At the food pantry operated by co-workers of Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic, and EMS in Marietta, a record 8,373 food packages were given out in the first six months of 2011.
The old record was 7,716 packages in the first six months of 2010.
The pantry is helping supplement the food needs of an average 1,400 households per month in 2011, compared to 1,300 in 2010, 1,100 in 2009, and 1,000 in 2008, said Ann Langston, the hospital’s pantry representative.
Clients receive one food package per family per week, consisting of about one dozen items of fresh, frozen, canned, and packaged foods.
These are basics – beans, rice, pasta – foods people need for an adequate diet, not luxury items. Pantry workers say clients go on and off the rolls, depending on financial circumstances.
The ability to buy enough food to get through a month is often affected by unexpected costs, such as medical or prescription bills or car repairs.
Some seniors on fixed incomes juggle bills monthly to make ends meet.
Recently, workers said, a household turned to the pantry in need of “meal stretchers” in order to host extended family in town for a funeral.
The pantry has a continuous food drive underway. Organizers say donations of canned and packaged foods may be dropped off at the hospital at any time.
Cash contributions are accepted at the business office or through the hospital pantry account at BancFirst, 105 SW 2.
The pantry uses the contributions to purchase steeply...