Bothwell names Carrie Scott Chief Financial Officer

Carrie Scott has been named Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Bothwell Regional Health Center, bringing 20 years of health care financial management experience to the role. Scott joined Bothwell in October 2025 as Assistant CFO before stepping into the CFO role.

Prior to joining Bothwell, Scott was finance director for Zing Health, a regional Medicare Advantage product. Earlier in her career, she served as CFO at I-70 Medical Center in Sweet Springs and regional CFO for Encompass Health, which operates Rusk Rehabilitation Hospital in Columbia. She also spent time as finance director for Fitzgibbon Hospital and for a Kansas City-based health system that owned and operated 12 critical access hospitals in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Scott said an aptitude for numbers drew her into accounting early in her career, but it was health care that has kept her there.

“Once I got into health care, the mission to care for our communities pulled me in and has kept me engaged ever since,” she said. “Health care is challenging, particularly in today’s environment and in rural areas where resources and tools can be scarce. But I know what I do every day helps support the amazing clinicians and providers taking care of our community, and that helps me start every day ready to meet those challenges.”

Lori Wightman, Bothwell Regional Health Center CEO, said Scott has brought thoughtful, dependable leadership to the finance team since she arrived.

“Carrie has been a calm, steady presence for our finance team since her first day here,” Wightman said. “She stepped into a lot of uncertainty and never lost sight of what matters, which is making sure our decisions support the people providing care and the patients who depend on us. I have full confidence in her and in the direction she’ll take our finance team.”

As CFO, Scott said her top priority is collaborating with operations to find opportunities to optimize processes and procedures.

“This is not only a priority this year, but a priority I plan to focus on every year, because process improvement is a journey, not a destination,” she said. “There is always opportunity for me and for our organization to grow and improve.”

Scott said that kind of improvement is always measured against one standard.

“Patient care is and always will be at the center of everything we do at Bothwell,” she said. “Every financial decision we make directly impacts quality, safety and availability of care, and should be carefully considered.”

That responsibility carries extra weight for rural hospitals nationwide. According to the American Hospital Association, 48% of rural hospitals operated at a financial loss in 2023.

“There are many factors that impact an organization’s operating margin. Some of those factors are not within the hospital’s control, such as policy changes and reimbursement cuts,” Scott said. “My vision is to focus on positive influencing factors within the organization’s control. Each decision and optimization Bothwell makes might be a small thing by itself, but when you make one change after another, pretty soon all those little changes add up to a big impact.”

A Sweet Springs native, Scott moved back to the area after college; both her family and her husband’s family still live in the Sweet Springs area. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2002 and has been a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association for several years.