Murray-Calloway County Hospital (MCCH) proudly announces the appointment of Nicholas O’Dell, M.D., as the new Medical Director of MCCH’s Murray Medical Associates Hospitalist Program. Dr. O’Dell joined Murray Medical Associates in 2014 and was named Chief Medical Officer in February 2020.

“To say the past year has brought numerous challenges to us all would be an understatement.  When I was named as Chief Medical Officer, I never imagined I would spend the ensuing months dealing with the local effects of a global pandemic.  I devoted all of my time and attention to helping lead our organization and community through the COVID-19 crisis up until the day I left Murray for my deployment with the US Army,” said Dr. O’Dell.

As both the Chief Medical Officer and as the hospitalist director with Murray Medical Associate’s Hospitalist service, Dr. O’Dell will focus his time to serving in these capacities and will stop seeing patients in the clinic.

Hospitalists are physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients. A hospitalist program helps improve outcomes because someone oversees and coordinates your care, increases patient safety, reduces length of stay, and enhances hospital efficiency. Hospitalists typically have more expertise in caring for complicated hospitalized patients on a daily basis. They are also more available most of the day in the hospital to meet with family members, able to follow-up on tests, answer nurses’ questions, and simply to deal with problems that may arise. All MCCH hospitalists are well-versed in the unique needs of the hospitalized patient. A hospitalist is assigned to care for an inpatient if he does not have a primary care physician or if his primary care physician has referred him to the program. MMA’s hospitalists include the following:

• Nicholas O’Dell, Dr. Joshua Donegan, Dr. Myra Irvin, Dr. Melissa Mangold, Dr. Clark Harris, Melissa Johnson, APRN, Laken Darnell, APRN, and Jamie Rhodes, APRN

Dr. Myra Irvin and Dr. Joshua Donegan will continue to see patients on an outpatient basis during regular clinic hours in the Murray Medical Associates office located at 480W in the Medical Arts Building.