OHCA board chair named Rural Health Advocate of the Year

Posted on: 5/31/17

The chairman of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) board, Charles ‘Ed’ McFall, has been named Rural Health Advocate of the Year by the Rural Health Association of Oklahoma. McFall received the award on May 25 at the 2017 Oklahoma Rural Health Conference held in Norman.

McFall’s nomination said “he exemplifies a level of commitment to health care in rural Oklahoma that sets the bar high. He has not only spent his career working in rural Oklahoma, but volunteering tirelessly to improve access and services for all Oklahomans.”

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, College of Pharmacy in 1969, McFall has served as a registered pharmacist in Oklahoma for more than 40 years. During this time, he owned and operated McFall Pharmacy in Frederick for more than 20 years. He also practiced in Shawnee at the Medical Center and at Comanche County Hospital in Lawton. His career in rural Oklahoma also included the years he worked as the Director of Pharmacy at Memorial Hospital in Frederick and consultant to Memorial Nursing Center.

Investing more than just his career, McFall demonstrated his devotion to health care in Oklahoma in 1992 when he was appointed to the Commission on Oklahoma Health Care by then-Governor David Walters. The Commission’s mandate was to consider fundamental structural changes to the health care system in Oklahoma and one of the recommendations was to create the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. When the Oklahoma Health Care Authority was created in 1993, McFall was appointed a board member by House Speaker Glen Johnson. He is the sole remaining original board member having now served nearly 24 years. McFall has served most of these years on the OHCA board as either chairman or vice chairman.