PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A hospital in eastern Nebraska has completed a transition from being a full-service operation to one focused more heavily on ambulatory surgery.

The changes to Midlands Hospital in Papillion are part of a national move to provide more outpatient care as opposed to inpatient services, the Omaha World-Herald reported .

Midlands opened a $2.4 million ambulatory surgery center last year as part of a larger $4.4 million renovation. The center has a dozen private patient rooms, four operating rooms and one procedure room. Patients tend to stay at an ambulatory center less than 24 hours.

“We’re not going anywhere,” said Dr. Patricia Murdock-Langan, vice president of medical operations at Midlands and Lakeside Hospitals. “We’re here for the community. But we are changing. We want to make sure we’re on the forefront, not the back side.”

Officials decided to implement the shift in care after speaking with community leaders about the area’s needs, said Kevin Miller, president of CHI Health’s Midlands and Lakeside Hospitals. The goal is to provide valuable services without duplicating offerings that can be found elsewhere in the health system, he said.

Midlands has 28 inpatient beds and an emergency department. The hospital doesn’t have a constant staffing of specialists, but can handle about 80 percent of patients seeking help, Miller said. Serious cases are stabilized and transferred to other facilities.

“Anything you bring into our emergency department, we can handle,” Miller said. “Then we decide what’s your best appropriate care.”

The hospital also closed its intensive care unit in April because of declining usage. Miller said closing the unit made sense because it was expensive to maintain equipment and employ the necessary specialists. CUMC-Bergan Mercy, which is less than 10 miles away, has more than 50 ICU beds.

“We don’t need more beds in our metro area,” Miller said. “We have to maximize the resources we have.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol says it has arrested an Alaska man after discovering nearly 230 pounds of marijuana in his sport utility vehicle during a traffic stop.

The patrol says in a release Thursday that a trooper stopped the 24-year-old man around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday on Interstate 80 west of Lincoln on suspicion of speeding.

The trooper says that when he approached the SUV, he noticed the odor of marijuana coming from it.

The patrol says a search of the vehicle turned up 227 pounds of marijuana in nine bags. The patrol estimates the street value of the haul at $681,000.

The driver was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to deliver and other counts.

DUNLAP, Iowa (AP) — Officials pulled a man’s body from a western Iowa sand pit hours after the dump truck he was driving fell into water in the pit.

Authorities and rescue workers were called Thursday morning to Hallett Materials in Harrison County just south of Dunlap for reports of a missing truck and driver. Sometime later, crews discovered the truck submerged in the sand pit under ice and water.

The driver was trapped inside the truck, where he died. His body was recovered Thursday afternoon.

Officials have not yet released the man’s name. Officials are conducting an investigation into what caused the accident. .

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Lincoln grocery store employee has been given five years of probation for embezzling thousands of dollars in money orders.

27-year-old Aimee O’Callaghan also was ordered Tuesday at her to pay nearly $64,000 in restitution. She’s already paid nearly $15,000.

O’Callaghan pleaded no contest to theft by deception.

Police say bookkeepers discovered a large discrepancy in cash receipts and deposits and tracked it to O’Callaghan, who admitted she took money orders to pay a mortgage, car loans, student loans and other bills.

The thefts from the Schmick’s Market occurred during 2015 and 2016.

OAKLAND, Iowa (AP) — A preliminary report on a school bus fire in western Iowa that killed the driver and a teenage passenger says the fire started in the engine compartment after the bus became stuck in a ditch.

The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board was issued Friday.

The Dec. 12 fire killed 16-year-old Megan Klindt and 74-year-old Donnie Hendricks.

Friday’s report found that Hendricks was backing the bus out of Klindt’s rural driveway when the bus’ right rear wheels dropped into a 3-foot-deep ditch. As Hendricks tried to drive out of the ditch, a fire began in the engine compartment and spread to the passenger compartment.

The report says it is unknown why Hendricks and Klindt did not exit the bus.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska commission has reprimanded a judge for letting an intoxicated woman enter a guilty plea.

The Nebraska Judicial Qualifications Commission filed a decision this week that said Douglas County Judge Lawrence Barrett should’ve known the defendant was likely too intoxicated to enter a competent guilty plea.

The Fifth Amendment says a defendant must “knowingly, willingly, intelligently and voluntarily” enter a plea.

Sarah Carr was arrested in Lincoln in 2016 on suspicion of drunk driving. She was accused of violating a reckless driving probation term and scheduled to go to court.

But when she appeared in court in February 2017, her aunt told the judge that Carr was “passed out in the car” after having been drinking the previous night.

The aunt and a court official retrieved Carr from the vehicle, put her in a wheelchair and brought her into the courtroom.

The prosecutor and Douglas County public defender Deborah Lee told the judge that Carr would plead guilty. Barrett sentenced Carr to 90 days in jail. A breath test administered after the sentence showed that Carr had a blood-alcohol content of .44, a level that could be deadly, according to toxicology experts.

Carr has said she has little to no memory of the sentencing.

In other cases, judges have typically administered a breath test before the sentencing. Defense attorneys then ask for the case to be delayed.

Barrett gave Carr the opportunity to withdraw the plea after newpaper inquiries regarding the sentencing. Carr declined.

Richard Bird, Carr’s father, said he doesn’t support the reprimand.

“Judge Barrett made the best decision he could have ever made,” Bird said. “We needed to dry her out.”

The commission decision said that Barrett cooperated with the commission’s investigation and no further discipline would be needed.

Barrett didn’t return the newspaper’s request seeking comment.