1. What is your title?

Mr. Eskew serves as the Practice Administrator for Upstate Cardiology’s Greenville branch.

2. What inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare?

Since Mr. Eskew’s father served in the military, he wanted to serve his country and honor his father in a way that fulfilled his altruistic desires and wouldn’t require him to take another’s life. Thus, after graduating from the ROTC at Furman, he served by providing necessary healthcare services as a Lieutenant in the military. Following his retirement from the military in 2006, civilian healthcare was a natural choice for Mr. Eskew.

3. How did you get this position at Upstate Cardiology?

Upstate’s Greenville location had been looking for a seasoned administrator to manage the operations of the facility but had been coming up short for quite some time. Luckily, after returning home to the south from his military service in California in 2006, Mr. Eskew began looking to continue his healthcare career in the civilian realm. He stated, “I simply fell into the position. I knew it was the right fit for me and they felt the same way. I’ve been here ever since.”

 4. What were your previous jobs? How did they help you in your current position?

Prior to working at Upstate Cardiology, Mr. Eskew served a variety of roles centered on healthcare in the military. His first assignment lead was emergency medical care on the front lines. Following this, he worked in a small army hospital operating as the CEO until his retirement from the service in 2006. Mr. Eskew stated that his training and multitude of diverse roles surrounding healthcare in the military positioned him well for his current position.

 5. What does a typical day look like for you in this position? What do you find rewarding about your career?

First and foremost, Mr. Eskew said, “If you are not dealing with an issue, then you are not doing your job. Whether it be human resources, IT, risk management, quality control, financial reporting, there is always something that needs to be addressed.” In regard to the rewards of being an administrator, Mr. Eskew said that seeing the results of continuous process improvement was what he enjoyed most.

 6. How many people do you supervise and to whom do you report?

Mr. Eskew currently oversees around 100 employees, eight of whom report directly to him. Following the chain of command, Ron reports up to the managing partners

and executive committee.

 7. What is the management culture at Upstate Cardiology (formal/informal/autonomous)?

At Upstate, the management culture is to empower the employees to achieve the practice’s vision of being the number one choice among referring physicians and patients. This is done by focusing on 4 ‘imperatives’: access, quality, communications, and teamwork. By educating employees on what their role is, allowing them the autonomy they need to perform, and ensuring them that management always has their back, Mr. Eskew believes that Upstate Cardiology will accomplish their long-term goals.

 8. What qualities are vital for being successful in your career?

It is important to be both a manager and a leader. There will be times where one needs to assume different levels of each role at the same time, so balance is a very important quality to have. Work ethic, honesty, loyalty, dignity, respect for others, and selflessness were other qualities listed by Mr. Eskew.

 9. What are the biggest challenges and/or hot issues you face working in healthcare?

The biggest challenge is the uncertainty of what healthcare is going to look like. Being receptive of change is very important in the industry, but is a huge challenge. Mr. Eskew also referenced handling the wants and the needs of physicians as a “complex balancing act”.

10. What impacts have the ACA had on how you operate?

The affordable care act has not had too many changes on how he operates on a day-to-day basis. Mr. Eskew stated, “Whether intentional or not, the government has not educated consumers of the modifications in their coverage when health insurance is obtained through the exchange channels.” Thus, the biggest impact so far has been explaining to patients why their deductible has jumped so much in the past twelve months.

 11. Do you see this job changing over the next decade? If so, what shifts do you foresee?

Mr. Eskew sees all jobs changing over the next decade due in large part to technology. Being able to understand and deal with Electronic Medical Records will be one of the most important shifts. Most importantly, though, Ron referenced “doing more with less.” He does not believe that fair access, high quality, and reasonable cost can continue if changes to the system are not made.

12. What level of education do you feel is expected of health administrators coming into the industry?

Experience is just as important as education in this field. He recommended pursuing a graduate degree to climb the ladder, but said that there is no “right way” to go about doing so. For some, working for a few years and then going back to school is right. For others, continuing on to graduate school right out the gate is best.

13. How competitive do you believe the health care industry is for administrators?

Ron Eskew feels as if the industry is highly competitive. In addition to this, he said, “The field is very volatile as well. This is why good support systems and the right frame of mind is important.”

14. What advice would you give to a prospective student interested in health administration?

Get experience and get an education. Mr. Eskew said that getting involved in the industry through volunteer work or an internship before deciding on any career goal is key.

15. Is there anything you would change about the current state of the healthcare industry?

Yes. If we were able to start again, Mr. Eskew would focus on ‘Ethical Accountability’. This means making the patients accountable for their own health rather than relying on a third party payment system to support healthcare needs.