Issue: Spring 2017 | Posted: June 1, 2017
James Ross
Distinguished Achievement in Health Care
From surgical care nurse to interim president and CEO of West Tennessee Healthcare, J.R. Ross has pursued excellence in health care since his Union graduation in 1985.
“It’s amazing to see where I’ve got to today from being a little country boy from Jacks Creek, Tennessee,” Ross says. “Being named the interim CEO is absolutely the pinnacle of anybody’s career, but for sure for me. After the 31 plus years that I’ve been here, to be asked to carry that torch for the past year is absolutely rewarding.”
Ross grew interested in the health care profession at a young age while watching his father work with an ambulance service.
“To hear him talk about getting up, going to make an ambulance call, it was really more of a calling early in life,” Ross says.
Before graduating high school, Ross received his own emergency medical technician license and took his certification exam after graduation. Working with the ambulance service helped pay his way through schooling at Jackson State Community College and then Union University.
“At Union we got to work with professors who taught us how to live the Christian perspective, and that helped us understand why we were getting into this calling of serving others,” Ross says.
Ross continues to serve others on Union’s campus by being on the Union Foundation Board and Board of Regents. On a daily basis, he works with West Tennessee Healthcare’s trustees and a “great group of vice presidents” to maintain the vision of the organization where he is interim CEO.
“I used to say, ‘I want every patient to receive the same quality of care that I would want to receive,’ but I’ve changed that,” Ross says. “I think we should be working to exceed what we would want.”
For Ross this vision means ensuring Jackson General is “an exceptional place for patients to receive health care.”
