Before coming to the Ambulatory Surgery Center of Spartanburg, Mr. Pankey was an administrator and clinical resources manager at different locations. His background is in nursing, and he worked in the operating room at several hospitals. He also served for 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserve. Mr. Pankey is the immediate past-president of the South Carolina Ambulatory Surgery Center Association and he represents the Association on the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission Advisory Committee.
Mr. Pankey has seen his center through many successes. One achievement that he is particularly proud of is the addition of GI to his center in its second year. "We introduced propofol anesthesia to the specialty in our area," he says. "This makes our patients more comfortable and our GI practitioners more efficient. This specialty now accounts for 30 percent of the business in the center."
Mr. Pankey says running an efficient business and providing quality care to the community are his favorite aspects of his job. "My clinical director has told me that she can tell that I enjoy watching an efficient process," he says. "I guess she is right. I love to watch the staff at Waffle House. They seem to have an ability to control confusion. I guess looking at a busy surgery center must look a lot like that to an outsider."
Aiding him in running this efficient center is his entire staff. "The environment is one of cooperation and teamwork. This makes an administrator’s job much easier," he says.
Mr. Pankey sees expansion in his center's future, as it currently performs 11,500 cases annually. "The great staff here has shown that our efficiency and organization can increase the output in the existing footprint," he says.
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