Union Hospital names a new president

R. Bruce James

DOVER, Ohio — The chief executive of a Wyoming hospital will take over Union Hospital in July.

R. Bruce James has been an executive at a half-dozen different hospitals, and most recently has lead Memorial Hospital in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He takes over for William W. Harding, who is leaving Union Hospital after 26 years as its president and CEO.

Union has about 140 beds, 7,000 inpatient visits annually and is located in Tuscarawas County just south of Columbus. It’s budget in 2008 was $94.7 million and its version of community benefit — health and wellness programs, unpaid Medicaid and charity care — was $9.2 million, according to the hospital’s annual report (pdf).

James was an industrial engineer by trade and initially worked in that capacity at hospitals in Dayton and Atlanta. He was an executive at Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Tennessee, the now-shuttered St. Michael Hospital in Wisconsin, and Sumner Regional Medical Center in Tennessee, among others.