Interview with Charles R. Evans, FACHE, president of the International Health Services Group and senior advisor at Jackson Healthcare.

Abstract

Charles R. Evans, FACHE, is president of the International Health Services Group (IHSG), based in Alpharetta, Georgia, and senior advisor at Jackson Healthcare, in Atlanta, Georgia. IHSG is a social enterprise he founded in 2007 to support health services development in underserved areas of the world. Its mission is to work with established organizations to enhance their healthcare management and development capabilities as they seek to attain their broader missions. Jackson Healthcare is a consortium of companies that provide physician and clinician staffing, anesthesia management, and healthcare information technology solutions.Mr. Evans's previous professional experience includes positions at HCA (Hospital Corporation of America), where he managed a number of company divisions and, in 2004, was named president of HCA's Eastern Group. Prior to his work at HCA, he held executive positions in a number of not-for-profit community hospital settings.A Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) since 1999, Mr. Evans served on ACHE's Board of Governors from 2004 to 2007 and as its ChairmanElect, Chairman, and Immediate Past Chairman from 2008 to 2011. He currently serves on the organization's Counselors Committee. In 2014, he received ACHE's Gold Medal Award in the nondelivery healthcare organization category. The Gold Medal Award is the highest honor bestowed by the American College of Healthcare Executives on outstanding leaders who have made significant contributions to the healthcare profession.Mr. Evans, a native of West Virginia, earned an undergraduate degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College; he received his MA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from Indiana University.Dr. O'Connor: Congratulations on winning the Gold Medal Award! You have had an exceptional career. Tell us about your beginnings and what attracted you to the field of healthcare management.Mr. Evans: My early career was in community mental health services and programming for emotionally disturbed children. I directed the Columbia-MontourSnyder-Union Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Drug and Alcohol Program, a four-county board of county commissioners in rural central Pennsylvania (the term mental retardation in the commission's name has since been changed to intellectual disability). In that role I worked closely with Geisinger Medical Center, which provided our inpatient hospital services. I loved my work with physicians and administrators and my involvement with the hospital. Through that experience, I decided that hospital administration was my calling. I went back to school to recredential for a hospital administration career.Dr. O'Connor: What is the greatest challenge you have confronted during your career?Mr. Evans: This question affects me on two levels. First, on a personal competency level, 1 have felt challenged in terms of-and have worked my whole career on improving-my listening skills. Most of us are much better at talking than at really listening effectively to what others are saying. I have given a lot of effort to this. In fact, I took a 50-hour course that was mostly about listening skills and listening more effectively.A second challenge was an experience I faced early on in central Pennsylvania. One of the programs we created and managed was a community-based residential service for deinstitutionalized intellectually disabled women who had previously been institutionalized for many years. At that time, the state had initiated a major program to transition these women into more appropriate settings than institutions; in today's world, they would not have been institutionalized in the first place. I was shocked at the tremendous community resistance to creating the programs. These were small, three-person apartment programs that were staffed, so it was a very safe and wellmanaged environment. But misinformation was circulated, and continued to circulate, indicating a great need for community education and for systematic, ongoing communication to effectively counter the misinformation. …