ABOVE: Rick Ash, the CEO of United Hospital District (UHD), is retiring after 11 years in the role.

BLUE EARTH–A recent announcement from United Hospital District (UHD) shared that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rick Ash will be retiring soon.

“I think I will still be here until late June or early July,” Ash says. “The hospital board thinks it will take that long to find a new CEO, and I agreed to stay on the job until they find one.”

There is a six-member recruiting team that is working on finding Ash’s replacement. Two of the members are Dr. Bob Karp, representing the medical staff, and Missy Storbeck, representing the senior leadership team.

CEO Ash says he has some mixed feelings about leaving UHD. One of those is the staff at UHD.

“I am really proud of all the staff here at UHD,” he says. “From the doctors to the nurses, from the office to, well, everyone.”

He gives an example of a couple of Fridays ago, when there were 18 patients in the emergency room, eight of them in critical condition, and two helicopters on their way.

“Staff came from all over the hospital and clinic to help out,” Ash says. “Dr. Karp had to cancel some patients, and others came and helped where needed, even cleaning up exam rooms.”

A visiting physician that day later told Ash how impressed he was with the response of the UHD staff, and how well they all performed whatever needed to be done.

“There were no bad outcomes and everyone did a wonderful job, no matter what their title or position is,” Ash says. “Yes, it is the people here I will really miss.”

Ash has been the CEO at UHD for 11 years, since July of 2015.

“You can thank the late Larry Anderson for getting me to come here,” Ash says. “Or if you don’t like what I have done, you can blame Larry.”

Ash’s life journey that ended with him coming to Blue Earth is fairly complicated. He once was a dairy farmer who did not go to college after high school.

“I was actually born in California,” Ash says. “But when I was 18-months old, my father died and my mother moved us back to her home state of Minnesota.”

They lived in a house across the road from his uncle, his mother’s brother, who owned and operated a dairy farm. It was located in northern Minnesota, south of Grand Rapids.

“I grew up milking cows, morning and night, by hand,” Ash says. “Nobody in my family had gone to college, so I didn’t expect to either, and I didn’t, at least not right away.”

He had met his wife, Barb, in high school. And they were married, and both worked and they had kids.

“Kids are expensive. I was interested in healthcare, rural healthcare, so 10 years after I graduated from high school I went to college and got a degree,” he relates.

Ash earned his degree in accounting and business at Bemidji State University and later went to the University of Minnesota and obtained his Nursing Home Administrators license.

“Then I got a job as the director of Fiscal Services at the county hospital in Grand Rapids, Minnesota,” he says. “Barb was a nurse in our early days, but later transitioned to being an artist and continues to create and make things better.”

From Grand Rapids Ash went to the hospital in Big Fork, Minnesota, as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

“While I was there the CEO position opened up and after a lot of thought, I decided to throw my hat in the ring,” Ash says. “And they picked my hat and that was my first CEO job.”

That was back in the early 1990s. The family stayed there for quite a while, and then came a big decision.

It was right after Y2K and the start of the 2000s. With the kids out of school, Rick and Barb decided to try a new adventure.

“We moved to southern Colorado where I became the CEO at a larger hospital that was part of a larger hospital regional system,” Ash says. “It was a beautiful area and full of really very nice people.”

Ultimately, however, they decided they wanted to come back to Minnesota and that is when Ash became the CEO at the hospital in Ortonville, Minnesota.

They were there for quite a few years. Then, at a Minnesota Hospital Association Policy Committee meeting, one of the people there, Larry Anderson of the UHD board, announced at the end of the meeting that if anyone was interested in a change, the CEO position at the hospital in Blue Earth was open.

“Jeff Lang had already left,” Ash said. “I didn’t really think about it at first, because we had just finished up a big hospital building project in Ortonville and I had started work on a new nursing home project there.”

But Ash says he kept thinking that it sounded interesting and eventually he decided to apply. And, he adds, he is glad he did.

“I still have some of that old farmer in me,” he explains. “I believe you need to grow it, never reduce it, if there is an obstacle, you retrench and then get back to work.”

His philosophy has always been you need to grow a dollar, not cut a dollar.

There has been a lot of growth at UHD these past 15 years. The staff has increased from around 200 persons to now 325 employees. There are many new medical staff members. New facilities and procedures and doctors.

“Of course, Mayo cutting back did have an effect on that,” Ash says. “But we also were growing in areas before that.”

That includes a new Wells clinic, more specialists and new information system and much more.

“We had a hospital board meeting (recently) and the number of projects is an impressive amount,” Ash relates.

He listed things like the new MRI lab made possible by a generous $1.5 million gift from Mike and Tami Hoffman; a project to create more space and exam rooms at the Wells clinic; expanding the parking lot in Blue Earth by removing two houses to the south; expanding the therapy department in Fairmont; expanding the OB department and possibly the number of surgery rooms; teaming up with Alina and Childrens Minnesota and other groups.

One thing that keeps growing is the number of babies born at UHD each year.

“The number of births used to be in the 50s and 60s,” Ash says. “A couple of years ago we had 112, the most in many years. Now last year we had 178 births here, and this year the number is expected to be 200 or more.”

That is why they are looking at a larger birthing center. They are also looking at expanding the operating rooms due to the volume of surgeries.

Ash says that having growth issues is a good thing. He believes that things need to be filled up and used, which is sharing the fixed costs.

“We do have a great team here at UHD and a very good board,” Ash says. “They don’t micromanage, they lead us, and let us do what we need to do.”

So, what is Rick Ash going to do in retirement?

“I don’t think I am going to sit around and do nothing,” he says. “And we don’t really have a desire to go traveling and wander around the world.”

He thinks he will do some creative projects at home, go golfing a lot, visit their kids and grandkids, and that type of thing.

“I’ve been married to my better half for 47 years this July,” Ash says. “We have had four children, Michael, Rebecca, Amie and Francis. All of which we couldn’t be prouder of. They have blessed us with six grandchildren, Aliyah, Olivia, Chloe, Brayden, Maximus (Max), and Alicia. Their ages range from 22 years old to 14 years old. My kids and grandkids are all in Minnesota except for my oldest son who is in Iowa.”

There is one thing Ash says he will spend some of his retirement time on.

“I plan on continuing to be a strong advocate for rural healthcare,” he says. “I am on a couple of statewide committees that deal with that, and I plan on staying on them and do what I can to support rural hospitals on a state level.”