Servant Leadership in Healthcare: Dr. Scott Centers’ Selfless Approach

Service to others.

It’s a key theme in the professions that Dr. Scott Centers has embraced throughout his 32-year career: U.S. Army and National Guard soldier, firefighter, paramedic, healthcare teacher, nurse, president of a private medical practice, healthcare system department chair, emergency medicine physician and now healthcare executive at ApolloMD.

“My philosophy is that I consider my role to be a service role, not only for my patients but also for my colleagues and my team,” says Dr. Centers, who joined ApolloMD in 2018 and is Medical Director of Emergency Services at CaroMont Regional Medical Center in Gastonia, NC. “Most of the positions I’ve gravitated to have been in sort of service to others.

“Every day when I drive to work, I speak to myself about something greater than myself,” he elaborates. “I state out loud my gratitude for the opportunity to care for others. By doing so, anyone can find their way through the stress and challenges to a transactional path that has purpose.”

Dr. Centers’ leadership style is based on basic concepts.

If a problem is identified, for example, he ensures that every team member has what they need to succeed.

He understands that team members respond best if they feel confident that their leaders have everyone’s best interests in mind.

And beyond the desire to remain employed, pay the bills and enjoy financial stability, he reminds his colleagues that work should be approached and executed professionally for altruistic reasons.

Extending leadership to the community

As testament to his dedication for colleagues, the patients he treats, and the community he serves, Dr. Centers recently was re-elected to a two-year term on CaroMont Regional Medical Center’s Medical Executive Committee.

Such recognition is intertwined with ApolloMD’s vision, “Healthy Clinicians. Healthy Patients. Healthy Communities.” It also aligns strongly with the company’s 2024-25 embrace of Servant Leadership in healthcare as an underlying operating principle.

A time-tested business philosophy and decision-making model, Servant Leadership is an  inclusive foundational, employee-led operational structure rather than a top-down, executive-led business model.

A Florida native who now calls North Carolina home, Dr. Centers credits his career and embrace of service-oriented leadership to several experiences and influences: a physician leadership course at Queens College in Charlotte, NC; the inspirational writings of former NFL Coach Tony Dungy (“coaches are essentially teachers”) and former U.S. Navy Seal Jocko Willink (“anyone who interacts with other humans can be a leader”); and ApolloMD’s unique position as an employee-owned, employee-led emergency medicine provider.

He points out that he joined ApolloMD just two years before hospitals and emergency departments in particular, were overwhelmed by the challenges, demands, unknowns, shortages and health care shut-downs during COVID-19.

“We have a high-volume, high-acuity community hospital,” he says of his current role. “We see 80,000-plus patients a year, with all of the subspecialties represented. We navigated COVID-19 at a very high level by spreading out hours to keep everyone gainfully employed, and by doing so, we emerged from COVID-19 several years later by continuing to provide high-level.”

Dr. Centers routinely reminds physicians-in-training that choosing a career in medicine must be based on more than potential financial benefits.

“Yes, you’ll make money as a doctor, but you’ll give up a piece of yourself in medicine that you can’t share with anyone else,” he offers as a reality-based reminder. “That piece of you will be gone because you have to give it to your patients, and not everybody pursuing a medical career grasps that completely. It’s important to understand that the drive to be a physician has to come from you — and not because of the promise of financial gains.”

He encourages his coworkers, colleagues and younger workers entering the health care profession to focus on their purpose as health care providers to others.

“That’s true, even if the focus isn’t medicine,” he adds humbly. “Whatever it is, you have to find the purpose that transcends selfish ideas. You have to focus on things outside of yourself. You have to find out what you’re good at – find your calling – and then create a passion around it.”

Leadership that’s “selfless”

Point in fact: he responded in late September-early October 2024 as a member of a North Carolina State Medical Assistance Team (SMAT) to the community of Hickory to evacuate one of ApolloMD’s nearby freestanding emergency departments in the aftermath and floods brought on of Hurricane Helene. He deployed there to ensure residents had access to high-quality emergency and medical care during their community’s recovery.

Dr. Centers meets yearly with all of his team members to evaluate their metrics, performance and goals for the future. If they’re satisfied and successful, he helps however possible to support their continued growth. If they’re stressed, questioning their career choice or facing family challenges, he helps them explore other career opportunities or work schedules that meet their ever-changing needs.

“We are successful as leaders when we help others be successful,” he says. “And ApolloMD is really good at that.”

To learn more and explore opportunities to work alongside inspiring physicians like Dr. Centers, visit the ApolloMD careers page.