Arkansas Business

Nate Miller

Nate Miller said it was a natural progression for him to leap from being a physical therapist to running a hospital.

The 35-year-old Miller graduated with a master’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Central Arkansas at Conway in 1995.

He then started working for Northeast Arkansas Rehabilitation Hospital at Jonesboro as a physical therapist. Within months, though, Miller was the director of the clinic.

“I started off running a physical therapy clinic and that progressed to running hospitals for HealthSouth [Corp. of Birmingham, Ala.],” Miller said.

In 2001, Miller became the CEO of the 67-bed HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital at Jonesboro.

He left the hospital and became CEO of the Surgical Hospital of Jonesboro LLC in February 2004. It has 12 inpatient beds, about 80 employees and an annual budget of around $43 million. Miller said he was attracted to the Surgical Hospital because it is locally owned, and there isn’t a lot of bureaucracy to tie up decision making.

Miller serves on the boards of the Jonesboro YMCA, Northeast Arkansas Council of United Cerebral Palsy and the United Way. He also volunteers at First Presbyterian Church of Jonesboro. “I’ve received a lot of blessings from God, and I just want to return those blessings,” he said.