Expanding Behavioral Health and Strengthening Pediatric Care at Dayton Children's with Ben Goodstein

Summary

---

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Episode: Expanding Behavioral Health and Strengthening Pediatric Care at Dayton Children's with Ben Goodstein
Date: February 18, 2026
Host: Chris Sosa
Guest: Ben Goodstein, Vice President and Chief Ambulatory Officer, Dayton Children's Hospital

---

Episode Overview

This episode features a conversation with Ben Goodstein, exploring the latest initiatives at Dayton Children's Hospital. The discussion centers on the hospital's landmark investments in behavioral health, strategies for workforce engagement and retention, operational challenges, and future growth opportunities amid industry headwinds.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Dayton Children's Hospital

• Scope & Uniqueness (00:22):
  • 230-bed facility; among the smallest standalone independent children’s hospitals in America.
  • Operates in an exceptionally competitive pediatric market—one of six children’s hospitals in Ohio, plus two in nearby Indianapolis.

---

2. Major 2025 Initiative: Behavioral Health Expansion

Ben Goodstein details the most significant project Dayton Children’s completed in 2025—expanding their behavioral health services.

• Investment & New Hospital (01:07–03:58):

  • $180 million investment culminating in the opening of a new behavioral health hospital on August 13, 2025.
  • Features:
    • 48-bed standalone facility
    • 12-bed crisis center
    • Day treatment and bridge programs, plus psychiatry and psychology integrated on site
  • Distribution of therapists to 19–20 satellite sites, broadening community access to therapy.

• Support & Community Partnership:

  • State contributed $25 million.
  • $10 million philanthropic grant from the Matteo family, former owners of Vimes Dog Food.
  • The building is named the Mattel Center for Health and Wellness.

• Rapid Capacity & Community Need:

  • “Since we opened in August, we expected a slow ramp up. We’ve been at 90% or 95% capacity since the day we opened.” – Ben Goodstein (02:33)
  • Outpaced expectations; inpatient beds operate nearly full, signaling overwhelming community need.

• Financial Impact:

  • 50/50 payer mix on the inpatient unit.
  • Profitable operations fund wider behavioral health network activities.

• Innovations in Care Delivery:

  • Integrated primary care: Psychologists and psychiatrists work alongside primary care providers, upskilling them and allowing clinics to offer on-site behavioral health therapy.
  • “Our readmission rates in that behavioral health 48-bed unit right now is less than 12%, which is really good for behavioral health.” (03:41)

• Community Coordination:

  • Use of warm hand-offs to ensure patients continue care with appropriate mental health professionals upon discharge.

---

3. Lessons Learned from Behavioral Health Launch

• Operational Hiccups (04:15–05:29):
  • Transitioning patients between main hospital and new behavioral health facility brought unforeseen complexity.
  • High number of transfers, especially for patients with both behavioral and medical needs (over 200 transfers in first 45 days).
  • “We’re never going to be perfect at this… but we’re learning and moving forward positively from each one of these little hiccups that we’ve found.” – Ben Goodstein (05:12)

---

4. Current Priorities & Challenges for 2026

• Workforce Management (05:53–08:48):

  • Focused on recruitment and—especially—retention of subspecialty providers.
  • “I think the retention is the most important thing.” (05:59)
  • High provider engagement rates (96.5–98% over last 6 years).
  • 2025 AMA Gold Award for provider engagement; only pediatric hospital in Ohio to receive it.
  • Strategies include emphasizing provider wellness, offering “pajama time,” and utilizing AI tools for provider efficiency.
  • Critical staffing needs: Pharmacy techs, surgical techs, respiratory therapists, x-ray techs, ultrasound techs, and nurses.

• Culture and Recognition:

  • Leadership index: 4.78/5 via Press Ganey.
  • “That kind of culture and that kind of relationships really have moved us forward.” (08:28)

• Primary Care Alignment:

  • Collaborating agreements with most pediatric practices.
  • Integration streamlines operations, ensuring seamless referrals and care transitions.

• Access to Care:

  • Expanding accessibility for both primary and subspecialty care, aiming to serve regionally and prevent patients from seeking care outside Dayton.

---

5. Hardest Task for the Year Ahead

• Budgetary Constraints (09:13–10:08):

  • “It’s budget.” – Ben Goodstein (09:13)
  • Political uncertainties and potential changes at federal/state level impact funding (e.g., 340B program status, Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement).
  • Rapid pace of recruiting physicians consumes capital quickly.

• Quote Highlight:

  • “At the rate that we’re recruiting docs, we’re running out of capital pretty fast.” (09:56)
  • Not insurmountable, but presents significant challenges.

---

6. Outlook: Growth Opportunities

• Organizational Growth (10:31–11:11):
  • Anticipation of a new C-suite leader; focus will be on:
    • Cultural alignment and protecting engagement/trust-centered culture
    • Growth in core market competitive specialties and primary care network expansion
    • Continued investment and development in behavioral health, balancing community needs with financial sustainability

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Since we opened in August, we expected a slow ramp up. We’ve been at 90% or 95% capacity since the day we opened.” (02:33)
• “Our readmission rates in that behavioral health 48-bed unit right now is less than 12%, which is really good for behavioral health.” (03:41)
• “We’re never going to be perfect at this… but we’re learning and moving forward positively from each one of these little hiccups that we’ve found.” (05:12)
• “For the last five years at Dayton Children's...our engagement rates range from 96.5 to 98 for the last six years.” (06:15)
• “At the rate that we’re recruiting docs, we’re running out of capital pretty fast.” (09:56)

---

Timeline of Key Segments

• 00:22: Introduction to Dayton Children’s and its unique place in a competitive market
• 01:07–03:58: Behavioral health hospital launch and results
• 04:15–05:29: Lessons learned from operational transitions
• 05:53–08:48: Workforce, retention, culture, and access priorities for 2026
• 09:13–10:08: Budgetary constraints and funding challenges
• 10:31–11:11: Organizational growth and areas of strategic focus

---

Tone and Style

Ben Goodstein’s tone is direct, transparent, and community-oriented—emphasizing innovation, continual improvement, and dedicating resources where the need is greatest. The focus remains on patient access, provider engagement, and community partnership throughout.

---

Summary

Dayton Children's is boldly addressing behavioral health needs by launching a new, full-spectrum facility and integrating mental health services into primary care. The hospital’s leadership touts excellent staff engagement and culture, but faces resource and operational hurdles, particularly around funding and workforce shortages. Looking ahead, growth hinges on sustaining engagement through leadership transitions and maintaining a sharp focus on both primary and specialty care network expansion.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Chris Sosa, your host and I'm thrilled to be joined by Ben Goodstein. He is vice President and Chief Ambulatory Officer of Dayton Children's Hospital and president of Dayton Children's Specialty Physicians. Ben, thank you for joining us today.

[B]

Thanks, Chris. Great to see you.

[A]

Yeah, likewise. So glad to have you on. So, for those in our audience who maybe are not too familiar with yourself and Dayton Children's, could you give us a little bit about both?

[B]

Sure. We're about a 230 bed children's hospital, one of the six smallest in the country. We are in the most competitive market in the world when it comes to pediatrics. There are six other pediatric hospitals in the state of Ohio and two in Indianapolis that are all part of our region for healthcare for kids. And it makes us a very unique hospital amongst them as one of the only standalone independent children's hospitals that's that small.

[A]

Thank you, Ben. So before we get into 2026, let's look a little bit back at 2025. So looking at that year, what would you say is the most initiative you led? Just give us a bit about the results that happened and how the whole project evolved. It could be more than one, but, you know, let's start with one.

[B]

So I would start off with behavioral health. We're investing about $180 million in behavioral health. On August 13, we opened up our new behavioral health hospital, which is a standalone 48 bed hospital with a 12 bed crisis center, a day treatment program, a bridge program, psychiatry and psychology. So basically the entire behavioral health network is in that building, which is fantastic. At the same time, we started redistributing therapists throughout our region and beyond, specifically linking them up with our other 19 or 20 off sites that we have so that the families could access that therapy outside of the main campus in their communities. Huge opportunity for us to engage the community. We got some state funding. About $25 million of the building was funded by the state. And then the Matteo family, the previous owners of Vimes Dog Food, gave us a $10 million grant, which was really beneficial. So the name of the building is the Mattel center for Health and Wellness. And we couldn't do this without, without donors like them. Since we opened in August, we expected a slow ramp up. We've been at 90% or 95% capacity since the day we opened. That is primarily in our inpatient units. We're open to 30 beds at this point. We expect to open the other 18 beds in the next two months, then the need for this kind of care has definitely outpaced what expectations were and really important. More importantly, we're serving a unique population of kids. And that strategy has really paid off for the community as a whole. Some of the benefits from that is the payer mix on the inpatient unit is about a 5050 split, but we're able to be profitable on that unit, which helps us fund some of the other things we do in our behavioral health network. Some of those things include integrated primary care with behavioral health, where we have a psychologist and a psychiatrist go into a primary care practice, teach up some of the providers on how to manage low level issues with mental health, and then provide a therapist in their clinic two to three days a week to do local therapy for any of those kids that we manage in their clinic to keep the kids away from the hospitals and hopefully out of the inpatient world. Our readmission rates in that behavioral health 48 bed unit right now is less than 12%, which is really good for behavioral health. And a lot of that has to do with the advanced services and the relationships we have with other mental health community partners along with our services. So when a kid leaves our unit, we warm hand off them to some type of therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, LASW or lpcc. So that would be the biggest thing we did last year.

[A]

That's certainly huge. Ben, congratulations to you and the whole organization on putting all that together. Let me ask you though, when you're launching such an enormously important project, what's something you've learned going through that whole process?

[B]

Yeah, I think the biggest thing we learned is when you move patients from one hospital in the same system to another hospital that's separate from the main building, there is a lot of challenges that we did not necessarily were apprised of. We even had a transition company that came in yellow brick to help support us through that. But we put a crisis center over there and that's a level bed. And the number of transfers is one of the things we didn't expect. Some of these kids come in with medical conditions as well as behavioral health conditions, and transferring back and forth between the hospital and this unit was a big struggle. I think in the first 45 days we had over 200 transfers. So that was not something we expected. We've since figured that out, did some more streamlining. A lot of this stems from when a patient's in our ed. We were discharging them and readmitting them over in this other location. And what we needed to do was a transfer, but it's just working through that, that. That process and understanding that we're never going to be perfect at this. We're not supposed to be perfect at this, but we're learning and moving forward positively from each one of these little hiccups that we've found.

[A]

Yeah, certainly constant improvement is an admirable goal and probably the best one you can hope for in those sort of settings. But, yeah, I'm glad things are improving on that end. All right, Ben, let's take this opportunity now to look ahead. So what would you say are the biggest priorities and headwinds you're focused on for this year? A little bit into 26, but still a lot to go and any tailwinds you might be looking forward to having boost you?

[B]

Yeah, so I would say a couple things. Some of the biggest priorities right now is workforce management, specifically around subspecialty providers and making sure that we have a strong manpower plan that supports the recruitment and retention of those providers. I think the retention is the most important thing. For the last five years at Dayton Children's, our medical group, which is Dayton Children's Hospital specialty Physicians, our engagement rates range from 96.5 to 98 for the last six years. And we received the AMA Gold Award for engagement for our providers in 2025. It's a very prestigious award. I think we're one of maybe a handful of pediatric hospitals that even received the award. We're the only one in the state of Ohio to receive it. And it's really kudos to the way that we have done our engagement with our providers through focusing on wellness, focusing on what we call pajama time, making sure that we give them all the AI tools necessary for them to be wildly successful. So those are some of the big priorities we're gonna be focusing on. And then obviously, some of the staff positions are also gonna be really important. We're struggling with pharmacy techs, surgical techs, respiratory therapists, X ray techs, ultrasound techs. So that category of highly educated technologists are going to be a big priority as we continue to focus moving forward. And obviously, our nursing partners. Our nursing partners are going to continue to be really difficult positions to fill, but we're excited that we have the engagement that we have. So Dayton Children's and Press Ganey, we received a 4.78 out of a five for leadership index, which is really, really strong. And I think that kind of culture and that kind of relationships really have moved us forward. I think some of the headwinds that we've been focused on is primary care alignment. Primary care has really helped drive a better clinical quality for the children of this region. Not necessarily everyone is owned, but we definitely have collaborating agreements for a majority of those pediatric practices. And that just helps align them with the subspecialists in the same organization. And not having to fax a result for this one and then send a referral via email for this one just kind of streamlines how we run our operations, which benefits the kids significantly. The second parts of that primary care is access to primary care and making sure that we have access to the subspecialists. So I think those two headwinds have really helped us focus on what we need to do for 2026. So to summarize that, I would say we need to focus on recruitment and retention of the staff that we have recruitment and retention of the providers and leveraging our apps to the best of our ability to support the subspecialists. And then lastly, making sure that we have good access across our spectrum of care so that the families in Dayton stay in the Dayton region.

[A]

Makes sense. Ben, it sounds like you have a really good foundation on which to build and retain and engage that staff. As difficult a task as that might be, not just for yourself, but other organizations along those lines. Ben, so what would you say is the hardest thing you have to do this coming year? Doesn't mean you're not looking forward to it, but it just means that you're gonna have to have a really special level of focus to accomplish it.

[B]

Sure. It's budget.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I think it's gonna be a challenge this year with budget across the. Across all organizations. There's a lot of things going on politically that could impact our budgets at a state level and a federal level. So I think that that's gonna be one of the hardest things we're gonna have to try to manage to the best of our ability in the coming year. A couple things that affect that is, you know, what's going to happen at the federal level with 340B and whether that's a successful program to stay in the hospitals or whether that's going to get parsed out to our state and then some other options that are going to be a challenge for us is the Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates and where they stand. Some other things that are going to be aligned with that is we only have X amount of dollars for capital, and at the rate that we're recruiting docs, we're running out of capital pretty fast. Pace. So I don't think that they're insurmountable things, but they're definitely going to be challenges in the coming year.

[A]

Understood. So finally, Ben, you mentioned some of the programs that you have going on where you've been able to expand and access to care at Dayton Children's from here on out. What do you see as the best opportunities for growth in your organization could be the next six months, three years, five years, Whatever timeline you feel is appropriate that you're looking forward to right now.

[B]

Yeah. So I would say the biggest opportunities for growth is that we're going to have a new C suite leader in the next year. So making sure that there's clear alignment with that new leader, making sure that our culture is protected and that culture is about engagement and trust and then focusing on our core market competitive specialties. At the same time growing our primary care network, which is going to be super important. And then the last part of that is our organizational growth and behavioral health, making sure that we're able to do that in a productive way that serves the community first, but also supports the organization's three to five year strategic financial plan.

[A]

Thank you so much, Ben. It sounds like Dayton Children's is set up for a really exciting year ahead and hopefully we'll be able to catch up with you on all this at a later date. But in the meantime, we'll see you come April and hopefully that won't be the last time our paths cross.

[B]

Absolutely. I look forward to seeing you in April. Chris, thank you for your time.