03/30/2026
A Good Doc is Hard to Find
And I don’t mean the kind that floats and is home to a bunch of Crappie to be fried up for a scrumptious meal. When one reaches the “Golden Years, like I have, the importance of good medical advice and care becomes more and more important. Sometimes the search seems endless, and I’ve certainly tried many a Grand Lake doctor.
We can start with many I have had a hand in driving into retirement like Dr. Hogue, Tom Riggs, Doug Cox, who didn’t retire, but chose to become a politician, Joe Chouteau and Dr. Richard Scott, who was my doctor even before I landed on Grand Lake as a full-timer in 1981. But the two guys who have logged the most hours intending to my incendiary lifestyle are Doug Cox and my current doctor Zack Bechtol.
Living in rural Oklahoma is beyond compare when it comes to a quality lifestyle, but the realization that quality medical care is not as readily available as in the metroplex is cause for pause. Usually some medical event is the reason most of us start to take a serious look at how we are managing our health care issues.
In my case, I landed in one of Integris Hospitals’ luxury suites after a visit to the ER with Pancreatitis attack some ten years ago. Dr. Bechtol was on duty that night and has been on duty with respect to my health care ever since. His bedside manner, while explaining my condition the next morning, wasn’t in the sugar cookies and diet Coke category. When he left the room, I said to myself, “Who the Hell was that guy?” I would soon discover that honesty was the bedrock of his approach to practicing medicine.
For the past several years, I have benefited from having stumbled on to a doc far more qualified than the usual general practicing MD’s. His fields of expertise includes general family medicine care, including annual exams, chronic disease management, preventative care, including common medical issues like blood pressure and diabetes, colonoscopies and treatment of common medical conditions.
Keeping up with medicine-0n-demand in the medical market place, he recently has introduced concierge service which guarantees timely access to the doctor. I signed up for the service and can attest to its value when I suffered a mini stroke. We dialed up the doc’s red phone reserved for subscribers and low and behold he answered the phone and provided timely instructions on what to do next.
I knew this doc was my doc when I discovered my previous doc, Doug Cox, was subscribed to the service and using Bechtol for all his medical needs. When I asked why, Cox simply replied, “Because he saved by life!”
Seems as though our retired District 5 State Representative was preparing for vacation get-away to Mexico but hadn’t been feeling great for a few days. He related the experience like this: “I thought about cancelling but we had family and friends scheduled to go with us on the trip, and I felt like I would get over it. Well, I didn’t as I got progressively worse and soon was diagnosed with Tick Fever. I f we stayed in Mexico, things were not looking good.”
He added, “My wife, Susan had seen enough. She got on the phone to Bechtol, and he advised us to fly home immediately. The flight home was a real test, but we made it and headed directly to the hospital where Zack met us and started treatment. In a few days, I was improving but will forever be grateful for a doctor access program.”
Good story with a good ending thanks to some timely prescribed medicine in rural Oklahoma. The good news is that dc Bechtol is still accepting new patients. For more information, contact his office at 918-786-4664.
See Ya’ Around the Pond!!
A Good Doc is Hard to Find
And I don’t mean the kind that floats and is home to a bunch of Crappie to be fried up for a scrumptious meal. When one reaches the “Golden Years, like I have, the importance of good medical advice and care becomes more and more important. Sometimes the search seems endless, and I’ve certainly tried many a Grand Lake doctor.
We can start with many I have had a hand in driving into retirement like Dr. Hogue, Tom Riggs, Doug Cox, who didn’t retire, but chose to become a politician, Joe Chouteau and Dr. Richard Scott, who was my doctor even before I landed on Grand Lake as a full-timer in 1981. But the two guys who have logged the most hours intending to my incendiary lifestyle are Doug Cox and my current doctor Zack Bechtol.
Living in rural Oklahoma is beyond compare when it comes to a quality lifestyle, but the realization that quality medical care is not as readily available as in the metroplex is cause for pause. Usually some medical event is the reason most of us start to take a serious look at how we are managing our health care issues.
In my case, I landed in one of Integris Hospitals’ luxury suites after a visit to the ER with Pancreatitis attack some ten years ago. Dr. Bechtol was on duty that night and has been on duty with respect to my health care ever since. His bedside manner, while explaining my condition the next morning, wasn’t in the sugar cookies and diet Coke category. When he left the room, I said to myself, “Who the Hell was that guy?” I would soon discover that honesty was the bedrock of his approach to practicing medicine.
For the past several years, I have benefited from having stumbled on to a doc far more qualified than the usual general practicing MD’s. His fields of expertise includes general family medicine care, including annual exams, chronic disease management, preventative care, including common medical issues like blood pressure and diabetes, colonoscopies and treatment of common medical conditions.
Keeping up with medicine-0n-demand in the medical market place, he recently has introduced concierge service which guarantees timely access to the doctor. I signed up for the service and can attest to its value when I suffered a mini stroke. We dialed up the doc’s red phone reserved for subscribers and low and behold he answered the phone and provided timely instructions on what to do next.
I knew this doc was my doc when I discovered my previous doc, Doug Cox, was subscribed to the service and using Bechtol for all his medical needs. When I asked why, Cox simply replied, “Because he saved by life!”
Seems as though our retired District 5 State Representative was preparing for vacation get-away to Mexico but hadn’t been feeling great for a few days. He related the experience like this: “I thought about cancelling but we had family and friends scheduled to go with us on the trip, and I felt like I would get over it. Well, I didn’t as I got progressively worse and soon was diagnosed with Tick Fever. I f we stayed in Mexico, things were not looking good.”
He added, “My wife, Susan had seen enough. She got on the phone to Bechtol, and he advised us to fly home immediately. The flight home was a real test, but we made it and headed directly to the hospital where Zack met us and started treatment. In a few days, I was improving but will forever be grateful for a doctor access program.”
Good story with a good ending thanks to some timely prescribed medicine in rural Oklahoma. The good news is that dc Bechtol is still accepting new patients. For more information, contact his office at 918-786-4664.
See Ya’ Around the Pond!!
