Hospital CEO Ken Hunter Retiring

Kimball Health Services CEO Ken Hunter, RN-BSN, plans to retire in January, KHS announced Monday.

Hunter, who turned 74 on Aug. 19, has served as CEO at the Kimball hospital and rural health clinic since January of 2011. He served two years as director of nursing at KHS after joining the staff as a night nurse in 2006.

Hunter received the prestigious Nebraska Hospital Association's "Caring Kind" award in 2013. The award honors outstanding health care employees who have demonstrated compassion for patients, cooperation with co–workers and dedication excellence in their job responsibilities.

His wife, Cynthia Stone-Hunter, a registered nurse, has served at KHS mainly as a night nurse since 2008.

"After much thought and many delays, I have decided to retire in January of 2024," Ken Hunter said in an announcement to the hospital staff. "Cynthia and I don't know what we will do or even where we will live. She loves the Rockies and I love the South, and we both love Nebraska. It has, however, been recommended that we try living at a lesser elevation to help with my breathing issues."

Hunter's retirement announcement comes just shy of the planned opening of Kimball's new hospital in January.

"Right now the most pressing issue for me is making my next 5 months as productive as possible," he said. "We have much to do and we just received our new construction completion date of Dec. 22, 2023. The reason for this announcement is to be as transparent as possible and to give the Board of Trustees ample time to employ my successor."

To Hunter's credit, Kimball Health Services has seen dramatic changes during his tenure as CEO. Gross patient revenue has increased from $8.06 million to $24.1 million, net patient revenue increased from $6.3 million to $16.8 million, total assets have gone from $5.94 million to over $21 million. Over the same period, surgeries and scopes have increased from 151 to 408 and inpatient days have gone from 724 to 1,293.

New services added include plastic and reconstructive surgeries, orthopedic services, ear, nose and throat care, OBGYN care, pain management and behavior health. The Pine Bluffs Health Clinic was added as KHS's second rural health clinic in 2017.

"Ken has taken the hospital from one with serious financial difficulties to a consistently profitable hospital with no tax support," said Jim Cederburg, chairman of the KHS Board of Trustees. "We would not be building a new hospital today without the business acumen he has provided and his strong leadership."

"My biggest regret is that I will not get to experience the changes in Kimball over the next 10 to 12 years," Hunter said. "The change will be amazing with the expanded workforce at Clean Harbors, a successful transit system (KCTS) including its dynamic leadership and staff, a progressive board of county commissioners that are inclusive and vibrant, a school system with excellent leadership and forward looking teachers, and most of all a modern, technologically advanced, 14 bed critical access hospital, with highly trained physicians and providers and a dedicated, loving, caring professional staff."

Hunter holds a Bachelor's degree in Organizational Management from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., and a Bachelor's of Nursing from Creighton University in Omaha. He was the director of marketing for a Hospital Corporation of America facility in Chattanooga, Tenn., was CEO of Solutions Psychiatric Center in Greenville, Miss. for three years and was CEO of Behavioral Health Services at Marion Hill in Vicksburg, Miss. for seven years. Before coming to Kimball and purchasing a house south of Gering, he was a charge nurse on a 44-bed unit at St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson, Ariz.