Love County Health Center, operating as Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic, is the community-owned healthcare system serving Marietta and Love County in southern Oklahoma. Located at 300 Wanda Street, Marietta, OK 73448, the center was founded on January 30, 1972, and has grown from a 25-bed hospital into a multi-building health campus offering hospital, clinic, emergency, ambulance, laboratory, radiology, therapy, and community wellness services. As the largest employer in Love County, it is a cornerstone of life and health in this rural Oklahoma community just north of the Texas border.
History and Community Ownership
Love County Health Center opened January 30, 1972, as a county-owned hospital built to bring emergency and primary care closer to residents who previously had to travel to Ardmore or Gainesville for medical treatment.
Before the health center opened, Love County residents faced significant delays in reaching emergency care. Local physicians and community leaders recognized that for cardiac events and serious trauma, every additional minute of travel reduced the odds of survival. As former Oklahoma State Medical Association president Dr. George Monks noted, studies show that for every five miles or five minutes added to the journey to emergency care, a patient’s chance of survival may drop by approximately one percent.
The hospital started with 25 beds and roughly 25 staff members. Under the long tenure of administrator Richard Barker, who served from the 1970s through his retirement in June 2021, the health center expanded its clinical footprint, affiliated with Memorial Hospital in Ardmore for financial stability, and added services far beyond what its founders envisioned. In 2022, the hospital celebrated its 50th anniversary with a community drive-through event attended by more than 300 residents. Current administrator Scott Callender continues to lead the organization.
Community financial support remains a central pillar of the health center’s sustainability. In February 2022, Love County voters renewed a one-cent sales tax for hospital operations by a remarkable 93% margin, with 335 yes votes and only 23 no votes. The tax generates approximately $1.6 million per year for hospital equipment and maintenance. The vote reflected what a local newspaper editor called the direct result of strong leadership in what is “an example of what is possible” for rural healthcare.
Patients exploring other community-owned rural hospitals may also find value in the profile of Harrison County Community Hospital in Bethany, Missouri, which similarly operates as a county-supported critical access facility serving a small rural population.
Tornado Recovery and Campus Restoration
An EF4 tornado struck the Love County Health Center campus on April 27, 2024, causing severe damage to the hospital building and multiple adjacent structures, triggering an ongoing recovery and rebuilding process that has progressively restored services.
The April 27, 2024 tornado was one of the most disruptive events in the health center’s history. The main hospital building at 300 Wanda Street sustained severe structural damage and was rendered temporarily unusable. Simultaneously, the Therapy Building, Growers Market, Adult Day Center, Social Services Building, and Maintenance Building all required varying degrees of repair.
The health center’s recovery has been methodical and community-driven. The Therapy Building reopened July 1, 2024, resuming physical and speech therapy services. The Growers Market was converted into EMS Station 1. The former Adult Day Center became the hospital business office. A temporary emergency room was constructed on Legacy Park Lane, with a new helipad completed September 9, 2025, and the first emergency helicopter landing occurring September 10, 2025. The radiology department reopened in the Therapy Building on February 9, 2026, with X-ray services restored. Plans for a restored or new hospital building on the original 300 Wanda Street site remain in active development.
Throughout the recovery, the clinic continued operating and seeing patients, with both in-person and virtual visit options maintained. Hospital director Scott Callender and the recovery team communicated consistently with the community. As project coordinator Jessica Crosthwait stated during the rebuilding period: “We want people to know they are not forgotten. We are working to provide the community with the medical services they need.”
Hospital and Inpatient Services
The 25-bed Love County Health Center hospital provides inpatient medical and surgical care for Love County residents, with skilled nursing, laboratory, and radiology services supporting the inpatient population.
The hospital’s nursing department has maintained a strong internal culture of patient advocacy and persistence. When clinic physician Dr. Joe Witten was admitted as a hospice patient in early 2022 following septic shock and a major cardiac event, the nursing team’s determination, combined with Dr. Terry Jones’s clinical oversight, contributed to Witten’s remarkable recovery. He subsequently underwent heart valve replacement surgery at OU Health in Oklahoma City and returned to clinic practice at Mercy Health/Love County. Nursing Director Marie Ross’s philosophy, as she expressed it during Witten’s care, encapsulates the department’s approach: “We are like a dog with a bone. We are not going to give a patient up without a fight.”
The hospital’s laboratory has served the clinical needs of both inpatient and outpatient populations for more than five decades, with recent equipment upgrades including new Siemens diagnostic testing machinery. The radiology department offers X-ray, CT scans, ultrasound, and echocardiography services. All laboratory and radiology services are open to patients referred by outside physicians as well as Love County clinic patients.
Emergency Room and EMS
The Love County Health Center emergency department provides around-the-clock emergency care for residents of Love County and travelers on Interstate 35, which passes through the county near Marietta.
The emergency room’s importance to Love County extends beyond the county’s residents. I-35, a major north-south interstate connecting Dallas to Oklahoma City, runs through Love County just west of Marietta near the Red River bridge. Multi-vehicle accidents on this corridor, including serious crashes involving RVs, 18-wheelers, and passenger vehicles, regularly require emergency response from both Love County EMS and air ambulance services. In one documented incident in early 2023, Love County medics responded to an RV-truck collision and arranged two air ambulances for critically injured patients, managing the scene until transport was complete.
The health center’s EMS operation has won state-level recognition, including the Oklahoma EMT of the Year Award for top EMS service in the state. The Thackerville ambulance station, which serves the southern portion of Love County near WinStar Casino, includes EMTs, paramedics, firefighters, and casino first aid attendants. A new helipad constructed in 2025 expands the emergency department’s ability to receive and dispatch air medical transport for the most critical cases.
The emergency room also houses telestroke equipment, allowing remote neurology specialists to evaluate suspected stroke patients in real time and guide time-sensitive thrombolytic therapy decisions, a capability of particular significance in rural settings where in-house neurology is not available. According to the American Stroke Association, rapid stroke evaluation and treatment within 3 to 4.5 hours of symptom onset significantly improves outcomes, making telemedicine-enabled stroke care a meaningful clinical investment for rural hospitals.
Clinic and Primary Care
The Mercy Health/Love County Clinic provides primary care for residents of all ages, with physicians, physician assistants, and family nurse practitioners seeing both appointment and walk-in patients at 580-276-2400.
The clinic’s physician team has included Dr. Stephen Hutchins as Medical Director, along with Dr. Terry Jones (retired December 2025), Dr. Margaret Western (retired 2023), Dr. Stacy Goode, Dr. Yanet Camarena (joined July 2024), Dr. Jordan Paslay, and several nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Clinic Director Misti Kirk, a Love County native, oversees daily clinic operations.
The clinic’s physician assistant Maria Maynard received the Rural PA of the Year Award from the Oklahoma Academy of Physician Assistants in 2021, a recognition of the high-level care delivered by mid-level providers in underserved rural communities. Patricia Owens, ARNP-CPN, retired December 31, 2024, after 45 years of service to Love County patients, representing one of the longest primary care tenures in the facility’s history.
Clinic services include routine primary care visits, chronic disease management, preventive screenings, Medicare counseling, telehealth visits, respiratory care, echocardiography, and ultrasound. The clinic accepts Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial insurance. Patients researching similar rural primary care settings can also find relevant context in the profile of Iberia General Hospital and Medical Center in New Iberia, Louisiana, which combines hospital and clinic services in a comparable community setting.
Therapy, Rehabilitation, and Specialty Services
Love County Health Center provides physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, and respiratory therapy services open to all patients regardless of referring physician.
Outpatient therapy services are available to any patient with a referral from any physician, not solely those affiliated with the health center. This open-referral policy expands the facility’s service reach across southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, allowing patients from outside Love County to access rehabilitation services locally. The Therapy Building, which reopened in July 2024 following tornado damage and later became the home of the restored radiology department, consolidates physical and speech therapy on a single campus adjacent to the clinic and hospital buildings.
Pulmonary rehabilitation is available for patients with COPD, asthma, and other chronic respiratory conditions, providing structured exercise and education programming under respiratory therapist supervision. The respiratory therapy department also provides inpatient services for hospitalized patients requiring breathing support.
Community Wellness and Social Services
The Love County Health Center campus includes Legacy Park, a 10-acre community park with a hard-surface walking trail, a food pantry, a social services building, and community partnership programs supporting health equity in southern Oklahoma.
Legacy Park, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2021, offers a fitness-oriented outdoor space available to all Love County residents. The park includes a measured walking trail, open green space, and serves as a gathering point for community health events including the annual Love County Senior Health Fair.
The hospital food pantry has operated since 2021, distributing food packages weekly to food-insecure Love County families. After the April 27, 2024 tornado displaced the pantry from its campus building, it temporarily relocated to the Greenville School building north of Marietta before establishing a new location on Memorial Drive. The pantry is supported by the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, donations from local businesses, and community volunteers. Feed the Children, the national food organization, has partnered with the pantry multiple times to distribute large quantities of food and household items to Love County families during need periods.
The social services building on campus connects patients and community members to assistance resources through the 2-1-1 community helpline. Domestic abuse resources are available at 580-276-2042. A tobacco cessation program serves patients interested in quitting smoking. Community health partnerships extend the health center’s reach into schools and neighborhoods across Love County.
Contact and Access Information
Love County Health Center is located at 300 Wanda Street, Marietta, Oklahoma 73448, with the hospital reachable at 580-276-3347 and the clinic at 580-276-2400.
The Love County Health Department, a separate public health entity located at 101 W. Main Street, Marietta, provides immunizations, family planning, WIC nutrition services, tuberculosis testing, STI testing, child guidance, and public health programming for Love County residents at 580-276-2531. The two organizations serve complementary roles in the county’s health infrastructure, with the health center providing clinical and hospital care and the health department providing population-level public health services.
| Contact | Information |
|---|---|
| Hospital Address | 300 Wanda Street, Marietta, OK 73448 |
| Hospital Phone | (580) 276-3347 |
| Clinic Phone | (580) 276-2400 |
| Emergency | 9-1-1 |
| Community Resources | 2-1-1 |
| Domestic Abuse Help | (580) 276-2042 |
| Love County Health Dept. | (580) 276-2531 | 101 W. Main St., Marietta |
| Website | mercyhealthlovecounty.com |
| Founded | January 30, 1972 |
| Hospital Beds | 25 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Love County Health Center located?
The hospital is at 300 Wanda Street, Marietta, OK 73448. Hospital phone: (580) 276-3347. Clinic phone: (580) 276-2400. For emergencies, call 9-1-1.
Does Love County Health Center have 24-hour emergency services?
Yes. The emergency room provides around-the-clock emergency care for Love County residents and I-35 travelers. A new helipad opened in September 2025 to support air ambulance transport.
What services does Love County Health Center offer?
The center offers hospital inpatient care, primary care clinic, emergency services, ambulance/EMS, laboratory, radiology including CT and ultrasound, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, and respiratory therapy.
What happened to Love County Health Center after the 2024 tornado?
The hospital building was severely damaged by an EF4 tornado on April 27, 2024. Outpatient clinic and therapy services were progressively restored, a temporary emergency room opened in 2025, and planning for a restored or new hospital building is underway.
Does Love County Health Center have a food pantry?
Yes. The Love County Health Center food pantry distributes weekly food packages to food-insecure families and operates in partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and Feed the Children.
How is Love County Health Center funded?
Love County voters renewed a one-cent sales tax for hospital operations in February 2022 by a 93% margin, generating approximately $1.6 million annually for equipment and maintenance.
Are therapy and radiology services open to patients from outside Love County?
Yes. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and radiology services are open to any patient with a physician referral, regardless of whether their doctor is affiliated with the health center.
