News

The Ozarks Healthcare Foundation invites community members to honor the life of a loved one this holiday season with its 30th annual Lights of Life event.

Ozarks Healthcare recently welcomed Dr. Ryan Vaisler, a board-certified family practice physician, to Ozarks Healthcare Family Medicine as a new provider. Vaisler joins providers Dr. Joseph Barnard, Dr. Samuel Evans, and Dr. Jen Lambert in providing compassionate, coordinated primary care backed by the total resources of the Ozarks Healthcare system.

Held on the third Thursday of each November, The American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout event is an excellent reminder of the importance of healthy lung and respiratory function. Ozarks Healthcare has several resources available to those facing disease and damaging effects from smoking or who need assistance quitting the habit altogether. Ozarks Healthcare’s pulmonology services, cancer screenings, and smoking cessation programs can help provide a pathway to healing for those suffering from respiratory diseases and disorders.

Ozarks Healthcare recently welcomed Dr. Karen Johal, pediatric physician, to Ozarks Healthcare Pediatrics as a new provider. Johal joins providers Dr. Carolyn Ellsworth and Bridgette Hendrix, APN, in providing compassionate, expert children’s primary care backed by the full resources of the Ozarks Healthcare system.

As healthcare workforce shortages continue to be an issue nationwide and locally, the Howell County Commission has announced its funding of a partnership between Ozarks Healthcare, the South Central Career Center (SCCC), and Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) to create a healthcare workforce development consortium that will increase sustainability of healthcare careers and recruit more students to professions in healthcare that exist in the community.

Layken Doss, licensed practical nurse (LPN) at Ozarks Healthcare in Mountain View, was recently honored with The DAISY Award® For Extraordinary Nurses for the level of care she demonstrated to a local patient and her family. The DAISY Award is part of the DAISY Foundation's programs to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.

The Ozarks Healthcare Foundation will host a benefit auction on Saturday, Nov. 5, from 8 a.m. to noon in the Ozarks Healthcare Parkway Center at 1211 Porter Wagoner Blvd. in West Plains. Proceeds will be used to help fund scholarships to students entering the healthcare field and support the Foundation’s mission of helping Ozarks Healthcare provide high-quality, compassionate healthcare through development of equipment, technology, wellness programs, and more.

Ozarks Healthcare and the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks (CBCO), sole supplier of blood, platelets, and plasma to patients at 44 area healthcare facilities, are asking donors to help build the local blood supply during their next blood drive, scheduled to be held in West Plains on Friday, Oct. 28, from noon until 6 p.m. at the Willard Hunter Classroom in the Ozarks Healthcare Parkway Center at 1211 Porter Wagoner Blvd. in West Plains.