O’Neal assumes role as MCMH CEO

March 16 marked a leadership change for Montgomery County Memorial Hospital.
As of that date, Mike O’Neal has assumed the role of MCMH’s Chief Executive Officer from retiring CEO Ron Kloewer. The pair held a retirement party for Kloewer and a welcoming party for O’Neal at the Wilson Performing Arts Center on March 13.
Kloewer shared his journey to the position of CEO, saying his first tenure with the hospital started in 1987, when he was asked to oversee a project.
“My role was to be a project manager for the new hospital construction, a temporary job. Prior to that I’d worked for Oakview Construction Company for 10 years, but I felt I needed to stop traveling so much for my young family and at that time I was actually looking for a transitional job before I moved into agriculture. The work as a project manager for the hospital seemed like a good transition job to get me from being on the road to my ultimate goal at that time of never leaving home on a dairy farm,” Kloewer said.
After he completed the project two and a half years later and helped move people into the new hospital location, Kloewer transitioned to working on his dairy farm until the end of 1991, when he was contacted by then-CEO Allen Pohren to return.
“I started back here in February of 1992. The job was to do some additional building projects in the medical office building, and also to start the health information technology department. I had IT aptitude, and I started the first IT department here back around 1994. Up until 2021, I worked a variety of jobs, including Chief Information Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and then started as CEO in 2021. Through those years, I saw a lot of campus development, new additions, and lots of IT changes. I also went back to school a couple of times to get a degree in IT and a Masters Degree in Healthcare Administration,” advised Kloewer.
Kloewer said during his tenure, there have been multiple accomplishments that he has been proud of.
“The first is the development of people, working with young people to grow them into future leaders, as well as working with our incredible professionals: the doctors, nurses, technicians, and people that have dedicated their lives to this. People who do the healing arts have a vocational calling that is unlike many others, and working with those folks, and being able to support them, has been a privilege,” stated Kloewer.
Another highlight has been the incredible growth of technology which has exploded onto the scene and especially in healthcare. The kinds of things that medicine can do now, Kloewer said, is incredible, such as same day hip and knee replacements where the patient can return home and mend the same day as their surgeries. Technology and its use in diagnosing and treating disease is transforming healthcare.
Kloewer said he’s also been pleased with the ability to grow the organization. The facility was initially 65,000 square feet, and now is at 170,000 square feet, which translates into more things MCMH can do for people to keep them close to home for their care, as well as give the hospital the ability to attract and retain specialists to come here.
“We have an incredible group of primary care, local physicians, and advanced practice professionals (APP’s). Physician’s Assistants and Nurse Practitioners are known as APPs. So between the physicians and the APPs locally here, we have an incredible team. What we can do now is supplement them with specialists that come here. We have 40 different specialty providers that make the trip out of the city to come down here on a daily basis. That complement of specialty providers along with our local primary care providers gives you a full service so that you don’t have to drive to the city,” Kloewer commented.
When it came to his retirement, Kloewer said that he was a strong believer in the use of a smart succession plan to avoid shocks to the organization, maintain predictability for patients and a smooth transition for the staff.
“I’ve watched leadership transitions go really well and I’ve watched them go really badly. My commitment to this organization was to do it smart and well. When I took over in 2021, I was already 65 and I told the Board I would go three to five years. I also told them in that time, I would work hard to bring the organization forward, but also I would work on a succession plan. So this puts me at 70 now, which means it’s probably time to do other things. More importantly, I have a very qualified individual in Mike who is ready to take over and continue with that continuity and sustainability so that we’re not going through a disruptive leadership change,” explained Kloewer. “I recruited Mike to come here around four years ago, and now here we are, and things have been fantastic.”
As he moves into retirement, Kloewer shared some of the things that he’s planning on doing with his free time.
“I have more hobbies than I can shake a stick at. I do woodworking, I still play music regularly, ride motorcycles, and doing all that and having more free time for my family will be great. I also intend to do some consulting work.  I’ll stay busy. I’m not going to just ride off. I’ll be living out north of Stanton out in the Pilot Grove area, which means I have a Red Oak address, a Stanton telephone number, and a Griswold school district. Pilot Grove is home. I also may do some traveling as well,” advised Kloewer.
O’Neal shared that he was born and raised in a small town in rural Nebraska. After high school, he served six years in the Marine Corps. Following his honorable discharge, he worked in the aviation field before spending six years with the Nebraska State Patrol. After leaving law enforcement, O’Neal eventually joined the Union Pacific Railroad, where his father and two brothers had also worked. He became a train engineer and spent about three years on the railroad.
“My whole family has been with Union Pacific,” O’Neal said. “My dad always wanted me to get into train service and become an engineer. I did eventually get on the railroad, but I learned pretty quickly it’s a different life. There are no set hours, no holidays, and trains run at all hours, even in the middle of the night.”
In the early 1990s, as computer technology was rapidly advancing, O’Neal began earning computer certifications. That led to a position in his hometown as a computer systems administrator, where he helped medical staff transition from paper records to electronic systems and worked to make the technology as seamless as possible for providers caring for patients.
After about five years as a systems administrator, O’Neal advanced to Director of Information Technology and eventually Chief Information Officer. As he worked with departments across the hospital, he gained a deeper understanding of their roles and how they supported patient care.
“It became apparent to me that I really enjoyed this work,” O’Neal said. “I enjoyed leadership and I enjoyed healthcare.”
That realization led him back to school, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration, which ultimately led to his first CEO position at Grape Community Hospital in Hamburg in 2008. Much like when Allen Pohren called up Kloewer, O’Neal said he was contacted by Kloewer about joining MCMH to eventually transition to CEO.
“Ron shared with me the succession plan, and shared all the things that can go wrong when one isn’t put in place. When I joined Grape in 2008, there wasn’t a succession plan in place, so much of my early work focused on strengthening the organization and rebuilding its culture. Ron’s plan seemed like a very smart plan. It was a week before my wife Kristi and I decided to accept the offer, not because it wasn’t attractive, but rather, I worried about what would happen if I stepped down as CEO at Grape, and how the transition from me to a different CEO would impact the organization, but they’ve been doing very well in my absence,” O’Neal commented. “The transition has been very enjoyable. Ron, the leadership team, and all the employees and providers have made it that way. I felt very comfortable, like I had been here already for a number of years when I started.”
O’Neal added that since joining MCMH, the hospital has had the benefit of essentially having two CEOs at the helm for the past four years.
“There were times when we were adding services and technology so quickly that it felt like we accomplished in one year what might take other hospitals five years,” O’Neal said. “From bringing in MRI services to opening retail pharmacies and strengthening collaboration with our physicians, we’ve worked hard to keep healthcare strong locally. A great leadership team and dedicated employees have allowed us to move quickly when opportunities arise. We’re always listening to our community and our staff as we look ahead to what healthcare needs to be in the future.”
With all the pre-planning, O’Neal said it pleases both him and Kloewer that when the transition happened on March 16, it would not be a shock to the community or our employees.
“We wanted people to feel comfortable when Monday happened. We’ve worked very hard, especially in the last few months, of having me take over more of those leadership roles that Ron would normally do. There is no guessing, and people know how I will react in different situations, and I know how they’re going to react. It’s been nice to be afforded that opportunity to work through all of those things already up front, take four and a half years to get to know people and their families, to get to know the community, and to be part of the community,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal shared a message for the community, noting that they have a great place locally to receive healthcare.
“Healthcare in rural communities has to remain local,” O’Neal said. “Larger cities can’t fully understand or run small rural hospitals the way the people who live and work here can. When I was CEO at Grape beginning in 2008, I watched what was happening at Montgomery County Memorial Hospital from the outside, and I saw a lot of innovative things coming out of this hospital and this community. That’s a credit to the people who have been here for years. Leadership may change from time to time, but the core group of people stayed because they believe in this community and the mission of this hospital. Our goal is to keep healthcare here locally, continue bringing services to the community, and keep advancing what this organization has been building for many years.”
Kloewer also shared a message with the community, saying that the community owns the hospital.
“It is known as a community hospital. I would encourage people to use it, because we have as good of providers here as you’ll find anywhere. I want people to have the confidence to know that I’m leaving the organization in very capable hands, that I believe in the folks here that will lead it, I believe in the folks that will give the care, and I am extremely hopeful for the future. I wish them all Godspeed, and all the best,” said Kloewer.
While Kloewer has stepped down as CEO as of this past Monday, he’ll move to a part time basis until June, working with the hospital archives.
“I’m kind of the resident historian, so I’m going to work on refreshing the history over the last nearly 40 years, make sure all of that’s intact so that these folks can carry on after that. I’ll write that history and present it to the Board and Administration, adding it to the historical collection of MCMH,” explained Kloewer.