Doug Hoban, recently hired as interim chief financial officer at Eureka Springs Hospital, introduced himself to hospital commiss ioners during a short, 16-minute commission workshop held Monday, Jan. 5.
“It’s a new year, a new beginning, and I look forward to working with you all in the interim role,” Hoban said. “Hopefully, we can make progress and continue forward.”
Former CFO Cynthia Asbury was terminated on Monday, Dec. 29, and Hoban’s hiring was announced four days later, on Friday, Jan. 2.
Commission chair Sandy Martin stressed Hoban’s background in rural healthcare.
“We’re thrilled that you’re with us, and with your background … you understand us,” she said.
A news release announcing Hoban’s hire said: “Doug Hoban joins the Eureka Springs Hospital (ESH) leadership team with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare finance and operations, with a strong focus on rural health and critical access hospitals. Born and raised in Chicago, Doug relocated his family to the Ozarks in 1995, where he developed a deep passion for rural healthcare. Throughout his career, he has worked extensively with hospitals across Missouri and Arkansas.”
Hoban previously served as executive finance director at Mercy Hospital in Lebanon, Mo., for more than 11 years and later as chief financial officer for Salem (Mo.) Memorial District Hospital, according to the release.
“Doug’s depth of experience in rural healthcare finance and operations will be instrumental as we strengthen ESH’s financial foundation and advance our vision for stable, sustainable, community-focused healthcare access in 2026 and beyond,” Eureka Springs Hospital CEO Tiffany Means said in the news release.
“I’m looking forward to putting my experience to work for ESH,” Hoban said in the release. “There are so many opportunities ahead, especially with the Rural Emergency Hospital designation, and the innovative thinking of the leadership team and commission.”
Martin said Hoban’s past work improving finances in hospitals makes him a good fit for the transition.
“Doug’s career reflects a consistent and disciplined dedication to improving financial strategies and outcomes in rural healthcare,” Martin said in the release. “His strategies align seamlessly with ESH’s strategic growth plans and our commitment to serving the needs of our community.”
Hoban told commissioners at the Jan. 5 workshop that while he’s been retired “for a little while,” he was happy to get to work again in a hospital like ESH.
“Again, my first and foremost love is rural healthcare, and how do we continue to provide health services in the regional setting?” he said. “I think everybody has to understand that in the rural setting you’re not going to be brain surgeons and open heart surgeries … but when someone has a stroke, a heart attack we’re here to serve them and to get them to another level of care if necessary, and so that’s really our focus is to provide that emergency care and Eureka Springs is now known as a Rural Emergency Hospital which … is kind of a unique situation. I think there’s only 44 in the entire country. So, we are working with their coalition to better understand what they call key performance indicators, benchmarks, if you will. And again, this is not to say we’re good, bad, or indifferent, but how do we relate to other facilities? …” Martin said Hoban will give his first financial update to the commission at the next regular meeting, scheduled for 1 p.m Monday, Jan. 19.
“Moving forward, and Tiffany and I have talked about this, there will be, because of Doug’s experience and disciplines and everything, our financial reporting will probably come in a different format with different detail, which is welcomed very much,” Martin said. “So at our January meeting we’ll have the end year [report] and it will be presented a little bit different.”
