Kingfisher Regional and Mercy Sign on the Dotted Line
Denton comes from Mercy St. Francis Hospital, in Missouri, where he directed outpatient services including imaging, laboratory, therapy services (physical, occupational, speech, and respiratory), and the sleep disorders center. He also managed the rollout of the electronic health record for the hospital – an experience that will benefit Mercy Hospital Kingfisher greatly.
Prior to joining Mercy in 2006, he served as director of imaging for DeWitt Hospital and Nursing Home in DeWitt, Ark.
Denton earned a master’s degree in healthcare administration from the University of Missouri and he holds associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in radiologic technology from The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Denton enjoys fishing, hunting, golf, and any sports his children are playing. He and his wife of 17 years, Angie, have three children – Payton, Carter and Addie – and recently relocated to Kingfisher.
Since entering a management agreement in April 2011, Mercy and Kingfisher Regional Hospital leadership have worked to make changes in services and operations that stabilized the financial viability of the hospital.
Under a lease agreement, co-workers of Kingfisher Regional will become Mercy co-workers and the hospital will be named Mercy Hospital Kingfisher.
In addition to its faith-based values and reputation for excellence, Mercy brings to Kingfisher an array of resources that most community hospitals don’t have, like an integrated supply chain that provides for value-based purchasing. Because of its size, Mercy can purchase medications and supplies in volume and at a lower cost than an independent hospital.
Also, Mercy is able to offer the community important technologies like telemedicine – which uses high-tech, audio-visual equipment to connect physicians with patients in rural areas – and an integrated electronic health record (EHR).
Recently named one of the nation’s “Most Wired” health care organizations by the American Hospital Association’s flagship publication, Hospitals & Health Networks, Mercy is among only nine percent of hospitals nationwide with an EHR sophisticated enough to access and share medical records among multiple Mercy facilities in a four-state area.
An EHR makes patient information more readily available to physicians, which helps prevent unnecessary treatments and duplication of expensive tests. And unlike physical records, an EHR safeguards this information in the event of natural disasters.
Mercy is the sixth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S. and serves more than 3 million people annually. Mercy includes 32 hospitals, 300 outpatient facilities, 39,000 co-workers and more than 2,000 integrated physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has outreach ministries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
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