This


DR. MARVIN FOWLER, 95, HAS SEEN IT ALL IN WEST PLAINS


BY DWAIN HEBDA PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES MOORE AND COURTESY OF OZARKS HEALTHCARE


I Dr. Marvin Fowler 20 | OZARKS HEALTHCARE | SUMMER 2022


nto the soaring entrance of Ozarks Healthcare’s new expansion walks Dr. Marvin Fowler. He looks around at the gleaming walls and sparkling


glass, then glances down the hallways as workers put the finishing touches on the massive expansion. It’s a lot to take in, especially for someone


who remembers being there at the begin- ning, walking into the original hospital for the first time, a structure minuscule by com- parison but not feeling that way at the time. “I remember having a lot of pride when


I walked into the hospital the first time. It seemed so new and clean, and we had a nice staff of people,” Fowler said, com- fortably settled into one of the bright, airy conference rooms on the first floor. “The hospital originally had a little emer-


gency room, and it had one psychiatric room that had a lock on the door. One oth- er private room for infectious diseases, con- tagion. That was the extent of the private rooms. The rest of them were two beds to a room and one four-bed suite — 50 beds.”


Upon


Rock


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