Business Services
FINALIST
At age 32, James “Jamey” B. Edwards took a huge risk by giving up a highly lucrative career at Lehman Brothers as an investment banker to become the CEO of Emergent Medical Associates; he was a businessman with no medical background or experience with the health care industry.
That meant he had a huge learning curve and had a lot to prove to the physicians as well as the executives of the company. But he met the challenges head-on, implemented various programs and increased revenue by more than 268 percent since his 2006 arrival. With results like that, Edwards earned the respect and trust of the company and the physicians.
One of the key factors he believes is necessary to grow a business is to create a culture of which everyone wanted to be a part. Edwards worked hard to establish a reputation for EMA to be the fastest growing company of its kind, providing high-quality care, and being employer of choice for providers and group of choice for hospitals.
Edwards believes in assembling the right team with the right people and empowering them to make the right decisions. With a lot of emphasis and resources being placed on training, these result in corporate employees who may better assist the physicians who then are trained so they may better attend to their patients. If physicians and patients are happy, it leads to the success of the business.
Two leadership groups are involved in managing EMA: physician leadership and executive leadership. The two groups may have different goals and visions for the company at times, but Edwards has created a “Senior Counsel” to help establish a partnership between the providers and operations teams.
Since Edwards joined EMA, the company has grown its number of physicians from 60 to 329. The company plans to continue to grow by acquiring sites located in Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Las Vegas, and by organic growth.
How to reach: Emergent Medical Associates, www.ema.us
