Cincinnati institutions formalize collaboration, become UC Health

CINCINNATI, Ohio –The University of Cincinnati, University Hospital and the University of Cincinnati Physicians have joined together under the name UC Health.

The name provides a little more direction and a formal title for a collaboration that’s already going on between the three groups. But the partnership is perfectly — if inadvertently — timed to react to the changes at the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, which began losing members last year and will continue to dissolve in the coming months. Four hospital systems have either left or said they plan to leave in the coming months.

Lee Ann Liska, executive director and senior vice president of University Hospital, said the three groups had been planning such an announcement for a year. “In hindsight it’s given our associates and faculty comfort while the system is in disarry,” she said.

Even with the new announcement, University Hospital said it will remain with the Alliance.

The change also re-inserts the name Cincinnati into the hospital’s name, something officials there have wanted as the school’s reputation has continued to rise and the hospital has sought broader name recognition with Cincinnati beyond the city limits. University Hospital was known as recently as the 1990s as University of Cincinnati Hospitals.

But also, the school wanted a higher profile for its role with UC Physicians and the hospital, university spokesman Richard Puff said.

At this point, there will be few tangible changes — aside from a new logo sprinkled across the system that will include the organizations’ names beneath it. Each organization will remain a separate entity. School and hospital officials did say there was long-term potential in developing more research and commercialization efforts in areas including diabetes and cancer.

Combined, the three organizations have more than 650 physicians, a 650-bed hospital, 20 area clinical locations and a campus in suburban West Chester.