IRVINE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Mercy Health Marcum and Wallace Hospital has been in Irvine’s community since 1959. Estill County's community raised $25,000 to buy the land and build a medical facility for the area.
The hospital's president, Trena Stocker, explains, "There was really nobody in the county that could run it so they reached out to a number of religious organizations and the Benedictine sisters from northern Kentucky actually decided to take the project on."
Stocker’s office and the wing it's in were once home to a group of nuns who operated the facility. Getting the hospital up and running wasn't without challenges.
"In fact, at one point, the opening of the hospital was challenged all the way up through the U.S. Supreme Court because of church and state separation,” Stocker says.
Mercy Health took over in 1986, and the last nuns left in 1989. This hospital has been in Irvine for generations, and even now, its staff of 202 still shows that.
"A number of our staff members are born here, some of them are three or four generation workers,” says Stocker.
The hospital’s mission is simple: to provide quality care to the people in the community.
Stocker says, "We just recently received a health grade patient experience award for 2023. And although we may not have for example, the surgeries, or we don't deliver babies here — you can get the care that you need to, or we can get you to that definitive care."
Marcum and Wallace has partnerships with medical teams across the area, including those from Lexington and Richmond, to offer more care.
Stocker explains, "We do that to help our patients because we draw a lot of patients from Lee County, Owsley County, and then obviously Estill County. Estill is our biggest population but that decreases patients having to drive."
The hospital works with the community to continue providing opportunities for future generations. While medical facilities across the country are still facing shortages, this facility is fully staffed in nursing.
Stocker says, "You have people doing those things because they want to see our community grow, they want to see what the future holds in Estill County. And I think that by having that passion, is what moves the dot."
