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Edward Eroe, FACHE, CAE, CMTE
Public Member

President & CEO, EPNetwork – Air Medical Today

Edward Eroe is the President & CEO of the EPNetwork which was founded in January 2009 by Mr. Eroe to provide news & information on topical areas that do not necessarily receive regular news coverage nor in depth exposure. Currently there are news & information RSS Feeds for Air Medical Today and Birkie Web Today as well as occasional podcasts called Air Medical Today, which covers the air medical industry / community; Birkie Web Today, which provides updates on the American Birkebeiner Ski Race; and the Kansas Cyclist Podcast, which provided bicycling news from Kansas and surrounding states. The EPNetwork uses the social media sites of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This has been a part-time hobby of Mr. Eroe.

From 2011 through 2019 Edward served as the President & CEO of Life Link III. Life Link III is the air medical critical care transport consortium program sponsored by Allina Health System, CentraCare Health System, Children’s Health Care, Essentia Health, Health Partners, Hennepin Healthcare System, HSHS Sacred Heart / St. Joseph’s Hospital, M Health Fairview, Marshfield Clinic Health System, and St. Luke’s Hospital of Duluth. He also served as one of the thirteen board members of the thirty-five-year-old eight-base transport program. Life Link III was named as the Air Medical Program of the Year in 2017. Prior to Life Link III he was the Program Director of MedLink AIR (now called Gundersen AIR) Critical Care Transport at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

For the five years preceding, Mr. Eroe was a Partner and the CEO of MedServ Management Services in Platte City, Missouri. MedServ manages air medical programs in conjunction with host hospital systems and is an affiliated company of Fitch & Associates, an internationally known EMS consulting firm. He worked with several hospital clients around the country and oversaw turn around management contracts in Columbia, South Carolina; Spokane, Washington; and Seattle, Washington where he served in acting CEO roles of consortium programs.

Prior to MedServ, Mr. Eroe served as Associate Operating Officer for Emergency Services at Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina. The division included emergency, trauma, and critical care transport services, disaster planning, and bed control/transfer center at this academic teaching institution. Before Duke, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of West Michigan Air Care, a critical care helicopter, fixed-wing, and CCT ambulance patient transportation system, which is a joint venture between Bronson Methodist Hospital and Borgess Medical Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mr. Eroe served as the Assistant Hospital Administrator for Emergency, Trauma, and Ambulatory Services at Fairfax Hospital/Inova Health System, a 656-bed tertiary care center located in Falls Church, Virginia before West Michigan Air Care. During his tenure with Inova Health System, Mr. Eroe also served as Administrator of Intracare, an outpatient intravenous therapy service, started by Inova in 1983. Prior to Intracare, he was Executive Director of Northern Michigan Health Services, a regional, ambulatory, and emergency delivery system in Northern Michigan.

Mr. Eroe is an alumnus of the University of Michigan School of Public Health Graduate Program in Health Services Administration. He holds his Fellowship in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), his Certified Association Executive (CAE) certification from the American Society of Association Executives, and his Certified Medical Transport Executive (CMTE) from the Association of Air Medical Services. (AAMS). Edward was the 2014 recipient of the Program Director of the Year Award from AAMS for his leadership at Life Link III.

Mr. Eroe is a Past President of the Triangle Healthcare Executives’ Forum, the Chesapeake Healthcare Forum, National Capital Healthcare Executives, the Michigan Association of Air Medical Services, Association of Air Medical Services, Kalamazoo County Alliance Against Drinking & Driving, past Chairperson of the Southwest Michigan Quality Council, past Secretary/Treasurer of the AMSA Foundation, past Vice Chair of the Association of Critical Care Transport, and has been an Instructor / Regent for the Medical Transport Leadership Institute. Edward has completed 44 Nordic Ski Marathons and serves on the board of the Birchleggings Club, a club made up of those skiers that have done twenty or more American Birkebeiner ski races in Northern Wisconsin. Mr. Eroe is also an avid bicyclist and has done over 82 statute century rides. He is a past board member and ride leader with the Twin Cities Bicycle Club and currently serves as a board member of the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride. Mr. Eroe has volunteered with the Loppet Foundation in multiple roles, including development, as a Minneapolis Parks Ski Ambassador, and with promotion of the 2020 World Cup Race.

Q: Tell us about your job and what you love most about it. A: I have always liked keeping up with news and information about the air medical community and very much enjoy interviewing individuals that are making unique contributions or leading interesting programs or projects in air medicine.

Q: What / Who inspired you to follow an air medical / critical care transport career path and how did you break into it? A: I got into healthcare administration after serving two years as a VISTA Volunteer in rural Iowa and the inner city of Detroit. After completing my graduate work at the University of Michigan School of Public Health I held various positions before my position at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Northern Virginia. It was through my position of Assistant Hospital Administrator that I led the effort to start Inova Medical Air Care and in learning about this very interesting pre-hospital critical care world.

Q: What is your proudest career-defining moment that best represents your overall professional expertise and experience? A: I really can not say there is one career-defining moment as I have been very fortunate to have worked on many interesting projects. These include starting a program with Inova Medical Air Care, merging two programs in Kalamazoo to form West Michigan Air Care, integrating the air and ground services at Duke Life Flight, turning around financially and helping develop the membership programs for Northwest MedStar and Airlift Northwest in Washington through MedServ, and for the consortium member and base expansion of Life Link III in Minnesota. In all my positions I have paid particular attention to employee engagement through honest and factual communication.

Q: What inspired you to join the AAMS Board? A: I have actually served on the AAMS Board three times now. First as a regional representative from the Midwest, second as a regional then At-Large member from the mid-Atlantic area, and now as a public member. From 2005-2007 I served as the President, now called Chair of the association. After I retired I was asked to join the board as the public member when Dan Hankins, stepped down.

Q: What are your top three impact goals you plan to achieve as a board member? A: Having also served on the Association of Critical Care Transport board, my main goal is that I would like to see our air medical community brought back together. Knowing so many individuals from both organizations I see upwards of 90-95% of our overall goals the same. I also want to provide the current AAMS leadership and board a voice of experience from my air medical transport career and past board membership. Last but by no means least, is that we provide safe clinically effective care to all patients.

Q: What do you see as the future of our industry and what is the best way to adapt to a changing landscape; and given that, what are the role do you see AAMS play in that change? A: With COVID-19 it is changing drastically air medical transport as well as the delivery of healthcare in general. We are going to see the exponential growth of telemedicine, most likely the further closure of rural hospitals, a greater emphasis on universal precautions, and perhaps finally some type of universal healthcare coverage for all Americans. AAMS will need to be on top of many different fronts to make sure critical care transport is available in all areas of the country.

Q: What’s your favorite book / movie / movie quote and why? A: My favorite movie is Dr. Zhivago and I don’t have a favorite book. Two that I have read recently and have enjoyed are The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care – And How to Fix It by Marty Makary, M.D. and Blowout by Rachel Maddow.