MOBILE, Ala. — Rick Metzger, the chief executive of USA Health Providence Hospital, is leaving Mobile to lead one of Northwest Florida’s largest hospitals. Ascension announced Monday that Metzger has been named president and CEO of Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, effective Oct. 12.
The move sends Metzger back to the Catholic health system where he spent much of his career in Mobile, and it comes weeks after USA Health reorganized leadership of its adult hospitals, placing Providence and University Hospital under a single market CEO.
Two years at the helm of Providence
Metzger has led Providence since June 2024. He began as interim CEO and was named to the job permanently in October 2024.
His time in charge coincided with Providence’s first years as part of USA Health, the academic health system of the University of South Alabama. According to Ascension, Metzger guided the hospital through that transition, including several major technology projects, among them the move to a new electronic medical record system. He also led a financial improvement plan that Ascension says produced more than $10 million in operational savings, and he worked to grow clinical services through partnerships with physicians.
Ascension also credited his focus on quality and safety with helping Providence raise its Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade from a C to a B in spring 2026. The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit that tracks hospital quality, issues letter grades twice a year based on measures of errors, infections and other preventable harm to patients.
‘A true homecoming’
For Metzger, the new job is a return. Before USA Health bought Providence, he spent nearly seven years with Ascension Providence in Mobile, serving as vice president of operations and chief operating officer from 2016 to 2023.
“Coming back to Ascension feels like a true homecoming,” Metzger said in Ascension’s announcement. “At my core, I am a nurse and a servant leader, and connecting back to Ascension’s faith-based mission is deeply meaningful to me.”
“Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola has an exceptional legacy, and my primary focus will be building upon the strong foundation Will Condon established, expanding access to care, and earning the trust of our dedicated physicians, associates, and community,” he said.
Metzger succeeds Will Condon, who was recently named CEO of the broader Ascension Sacred Heart Health System.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rick back to lead Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola,” Condon said. “Rick brings a unique combination of frontline clinical insight as a registered nurse, proven operational leadership, and a steadfast commitment to our Mission. He understands what it means to lead within Ascension, and that will be invaluable as we continue to expand services and provide compassionate, high-quality care across our region.”
From OR orderly to hospital CEO
Metzger, a Huntsville native and registered nurse, brings more than two decades of experience in patient care, hospital operations, quality and safety.
He started in health care at 19 as an operating room orderly, then worked in surgical technology and nursing before moving into hospital operations and executive leadership. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a Master of Management in Health Care from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. In 2022, he completed Ascension’s Executive Ministry Leadership Formation program.
What happens at Providence
On Tuesday morning, USA Health’s website still listed Metzger as Providence’s CEO. It was not immediately clear who would oversee the hospital’s day-to-day operations after his departure.
The change comes shortly after a broader leadership shift at USA Health. Earlier this month, the system named Josh Snow, the CEO of University Hospital, as market CEO of its new Adult Hospitals Division. In that role, Snow oversees both University Hospital and Providence Hospital, the system’s two adult acute-care hospitals in Mobile.
USA Health is led by CEO Natalie Fox, who was recently named to a national list of academic medical center leaders for the second year in a row.
About Providence Hospital
Providence is one of the oldest hospitals in Alabama. It was founded in 1854 by the Daughters of Charity, a Catholic order of sisters who had first come to Mobile in the 1840s to care for orphans after a yellow fever outbreak. Local citizens formed a board that year to build the sisters a new hospital, which opened in 1855 at Broad and St. Anthony streets.
The hospital later moved to Springhill Avenue and, in 1987, to its current 11-story tower on a large campus on the western side of the city. The building was designed by Chicago architect Bertrand Goldberg, best known for the Marina City towers, and uses his “bed-cluster pod” layout that places groups of patient rooms around central nursing stations.
Providence joined Ascension when that system formed in 1999 and was renamed Ascension Providence in 2017. In April 2023, the University of South Alabama Health Care Authority agreed to buy the hospital and its clinics from St. Louis-based Ascension for $85 million, and the sale was completed Oct. 1, 2023. Today, USA Health Providence Hospital is a 349-bed acute care hospital and Level III trauma center.
About Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola
Metzger’s new hospital shares Providence’s roots. Five Daughters of Charity opened Pensacola’s first hospital on Sept. 1, 1915. Originally called Pensacola Hospital and located on 12th Avenue, it was renamed Sacred Heart in 1948 and moved to its current home on Ninth Avenue in 1965.
Sacred Heart opened a children’s hospital in 1969, now known as the Studer Family Children’s Hospital, and today is home to the region’s only Level I trauma center and only pediatric trauma center, along with a nationally certified comprehensive stroke center. The system has been expanding with freestanding emergency rooms in Perdido and Pace and a new inpatient rehabilitation center on its Pensacola campus. The hospital marked 110 years of service in 2025.
Key dates
- 2016–2023: Metzger serves as vice president of operations and chief operating officer at Ascension Providence in Mobile.
- Oct. 1, 2023: USA Health completes its purchase of Providence from Ascension.
- June 2024: Metzger becomes interim CEO of USA Health Providence Hospital.
- October 2024: Metzger is named permanent CEO.
- Spring 2026: Providence’s Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade improves from C to B.
- September 2026: USA Health names Josh Snow market CEO over University and Providence hospitals.
- Oct. 12, 2026: Metzger starts as president and CEO of Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola.