Scott Callender At the Helm on 50th Anniversary
Posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2022
A new CEO/Administrator is at the helm as Mercy Health/Love County launches its second half-century in 2022.
But W. Scott Callender is no stranger to coworkers or to Mercy. He joined the Marietta hospital in 2015 as controller and to prepare under the leadership of Richard Barker for transitioning to administrator.
Callender knows the area well, having been raised in Dickson and living in Ardmore throughout his adult life. More to the point, he was affiliated with Memorial Hospital or its successor Mercy Hospital Ardmore since 1991.
“I was accounting manager for the hospital in Ardmore but we had a lease agreement or a management agreement with Mercy Health/Love county since 1997, so I had been familiar with the financial operations of this hospital for a long time before coming here as controller,” Callender said.
The Love County Health Center Board of Control appointed Callender as CEO/Administrator in the fall of 2021. He is only the fifth administrator in the hospital’s first 50 years. Others were Sheldon Franks, Walter Lake, Jerry Cole, and Richard Barker. Barker served 31 years before retiring in 2021.
Callender paid tribute to Barker, the Board, and coworkers for helping him prepare, and he pledged to continue being a good steward of health care in Love County.
“I enjoy helping people. “I’m not doing patient care, but as controller I felt by keeping the financial area in order, I help my medical coworkers feel at ease doing their main jobs of giving patients all the care they deserve,” Callender said.