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Uhl now leads a hospital with more than 6,500 staff and physicians and 990 beds.
He’s also started as the face of Miami Valley Hospital about five months after Premier’s controversial decision to close its other hospital in the city, Good Samaritan.
The closed hospital had 1,600 main campus employees and many of those employees, services and patients have since been absorbed by Miami Valley Hospital.
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Uhl said the timing means he will be an integral part of shaping what the hospital will look like going forward.
“This was probably the right time to help set the stage of what the future will look like, help establish what the vision will look like as we move forward and have the new leader coming on board working with the team to say ‘here’s where I think we’re going,’ and we’re going to continue to enhance and embrace the transformation that we underwent in 2018,” Uhl said.
Uhl started his career as a registered nurse at Middletown Regional Hospital, which later became Atrium. He first moved into management when he became the emergency department manager.
After working as a consultant he came back to Atrium and in January 2017 he became Atrium’s president. He succeeded retiring president Carol Turner, who he said was the person who encouraged him to apply for his first management position.
Uhl said he still keeps up his nursing license and certifications, and said his nursing roots affect his management style today. He said some days he wears scrubs to work and tries to regularly spend time on the floor and visiting different departments.
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“I don’t believe you can run an organization, no matter how big or small it is, sitting in your office or sitting in the board room all the time. So I’m out and about, boots on the ground, if you will,” Uhl said.
Miami Valley Hospital has two large additional campuses, Miami Valley Hospital South in Centerville and Miami Valley Hospital North in Englewood, which was formerly Good Samaritan North Health Center.
The hospital has an even wider reach beyond the Dayton area through its affiliated physicians, its air ambulance CareFlight and the referred patients.
“It’s extremely exciting and humbling to lead an organization that has such a far extended reach beyond just southwest Ohio and helping drive the future of what those services look like and how we enhance those services to fulfill our mission,” Uhl said. “That’s the part that’s so exciting about this role is that I can help guide the future direction working with our physician partners and other colleagues.”
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Hospitals are businesses shaped by state and federal policy and Uhl said some of the potential policies changes on his radar include changes to the Affordable Care Act and threats to Medicaid expansion. When Medicaid expanded to cover more low-income Ohioans, it cut the uninsured rate and meant fewer people treated without the ability to pay their ER bills.
More than 30 percent of Miami Valley patients were covered by Medicaid in 2016, federal data show.
“Given the high percentage of Medicaid patients we take care of and serve, that’s very important to us,” Uhl said.
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Miami Valley Hospital facts & figures
30.8%: Patients with Medicaid in 2016
41.7%: Patients with Medicare in 2016
6,500: Staff and physicians
990: Beds
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