{"id":275162,"date":"2026-02-05T09:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275162\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T09:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:29:11","slug":"change-to-be-a-constant-for-regional-west-well-into-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275162\/","title":{"rendered":"Change to be a constant for Regional West well into the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Change was a repeated theme as Regional West Health Services CEO Ned Resch recently sat down with Rural Radio\u2019s Bill Boyer for an update on the Scottsbluff healthcare facility.<\/p>\n

New services, improved procedures and staffing changes have marked Resch\u2019s first nine months at the hospital, and he says that\u2019s something that will continue well into the future.<\/p>\n

Resch noted new providers include an orthopedist that will be joining in the fall, and a rheumatologist will be on staff next month, with two new psychiatrists already on board, and a growing Behavioral Health Unit. \u201cThat\u2019s both unfortunate, always to see folks in crisis, but fortunate that we\u2019re here to provide a service and have beds available. (We) had a new therapy dog, Birdy, joined us in our BHU, which is really exciting and really, really nice for patients to have that therapy. And then we have expanded hours, one day a week at our outpatient behavioral health clinic. On Thursdays, we\u2019re open up until 7 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

One change that Resch said was expected was Fitch Ratings<\/a>\u2018 downgrading of the hospital\u2019s bonds in December from B- to CCC. Of particular concern to Fitch was the hospital system\u2019s cash reserves, which have been running considerably lower than the minimum level of 75 days cash on hand that the ratings company prefers, and for the first time Fitch called it an asymmetrical risk.<\/p>\n

Resch acknowledged that while it\u2019s never good to see such ratings decline, administrators are executing a plan that will take some time to help generate the higher cash reserves Fitch wants to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore important than putting more into reserves and cash on hand is paying down our liabilities and our vendors. And so it\u2019s kind of a double edged sword; we pay down as we focus on paying down our liabilities and our vendors and our debt, our cash won\u2019t grow so much. And as a result, you know, an organization like Fitch is going to it\u2019s going to look at that and be a little uncomfortable,\u201d said Resch. \u201cAnd so we\u2019ve articulated that to them, and we are very open and transparent about our plans, and we feel very confident in our plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the impact of those plans, he said getting back to a higher level of financial standing is just one of their goals, and everything will take time. \u201cAt the end of the day, everything we\u2019re talking about is putting the people at the center of everything we do, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re focused on, and then that money will follow and results will follow that. So, it took years and years to get to a to a tough place, with lots of external impacts that were unexpected, and it will take us years to get out of it. And we will also experience curveballs and unexpected things, but we will navigate those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resch said if anything, change is a constant in the healthcare field, so much so that these days, those facilities that don\u2019t change often end up closing their doors. However, Regional West is on a solid evolutionary path.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always have to change, and that change sometimes is small and sometimes it\u2019s big. And I would say there was there\u2019s a fair amount of change in 2025, in my first nine months here or really eight months here,\u201d Resch said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be more change, and that is not a bad thing, actually. Any change that happens, we\u2019ll always try to provide as much transparency and context as we possibly can. But I think in the long run, the changes we make are for the future and and stability and health of this hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full interview with Ned and Bill can be heard here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Change was a repeated theme as Regional West Health Services CEO Ned Resch recently sat down with Rural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-275162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}