A Nebraska hospital executive has resigned after state auditors questioned more than $38,000 in spending on golf outings, luxury travel perks, and streaming subscriptions.
The allegations involve a small-town medical facility that relies on limited public resources to keep care available for rural residents.
Here's what to know
According to the Nebraska Examiner, Jared Chaffin served as chief executive and financial officer of Warren Memorial Hospital in Friend, Nebraska.
In a letter, Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley said cards paid by Chaffin's employer were used for charges including Hulu and YouTube TV subscriptions, purchases at an ice cream shop and pizza parlor, airline seat upgrades, and Ritz-Carlton room service.
The audit also listed thousands of dollars in reimbursed golf expenses tied to outings in Nebraska, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, and Tennessee.
"It's always infuriating to see public money being misused," Foley said in a media statement. "But depriving an important medical facility of scarce funds, solely for extravagant personal aggrandizement, is especially disturbing."
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Hospital materials included with the audit said Chaffin reimbursed the city's healthcare system for personal expenses and other charges later deemed improper.
More background
Warren Memorial Hospital serves as a healthcare lifeline for a rural community.
Residents of Saline and Seward counties in southeast Nebraska rely on the Friend hospital, which opened in 1930 and primarily provides clinic, outpatient, and emergency care.
Congress created the rural emergency hospital designation in 2021 to help communities maintain emergency and outpatient services when a small rural hospital may not be sustainable. Warren Memorial had previously been a critical access hospital before becoming Nebraska's first facility in that category in January 2024.
Foley said rural hospitals in Nebraska are "teetering under budgetary pressures," and auditors noted that hospital representatives had publicly said pandemic relief funding was running out as the facility neared a breaking point.
What's being done?
Foley's office has forwarded the findings to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
While saying the hospital should be "made whole for any improperly expended funds," the board also said it had already provided documentation showing that some challenged transactions, including certain Dietary Department expenses, were legitimate business purchases.
The board said interim leaders are in place while it searches for Chaffin's replacement.
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