Employee Spotlights

Employee Spotlight:
Meet Dr. Jeff Embrey

Jeff Embrey, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Irving

For nearly 40 years, Jeff Embrey, MD, physician on the medical staff and Chief Medical Officer at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Irving has seen the hospital grow its services and staff to support the thriving Irving community. But when he joined the hospital in 1981, it looked a lot different than it does today.

“I started out as a phlebotomist and a laboratory assistant, and I have provided patient care here as a pathologist since 1986,” says Dr. Embrey.

“At the time I arrived, Irving Community Hospital was truly a community hospital in every possible way, from the donations that allowed it to be built to the limited township that we served. We couldn’t handle more intensive surgical cases, so sicker patients visited bigger hospitals in the area.”

The good news was, the hospital was already thinking about future growth, he says.

Investing in the future

In 1981, Irving Community Hospital was just getting off the ground, leaders were focused on recruiting, and physicians were helping advance important service lines such as cardology, oncology, gastroenterology, pulmonary, renal and infectious disease. The hospital also added a 6th floor tower and new intensive care and coronary care units.

Within a few years, Irving physicians on the medical staff were performing open heart surgery.

“Those additions were a major development that allowed us to serve patients with more severe illnesses,” Dr. Embrey says. “Advancing our surgical subspecialties helped us become a near full-service hospital that, with the exception of transplants, could meet the needs of the citizens of Irving—a community that was experiencing an exciting growth rate.”

Growth through collaboration

Today, the once solo Irving Community Hospital is now part of the largest not-for-profit hospital system in Texas—Baylor Scott & White Health. But Baylor Scott & White – Irving hasn’t lost its community feel.

“Our facility has benefited from our affiliation with Baylor Scott & White Health but maintained our unique personality as a community facility responding to the needs of the local population,” Dr. Embrey says. “The Irving community and the hospital have grown alongside one another, in parallel.”

A culture of collaboration and mutual respect, he says, has been essential to the hospital’s ability to serve current patients and to plan for the ever-growing healthcare needs of both Irving and its surrounding communities of Coppell and Grand Prairie. It’s also one reason why Dr. Embrey has chosen to build his career at Baylor Scott & White – Irving.

“What keeps me here are the people,” he says. “Our hospital, through its administration and board, seeks to collaborate with physicians at every step of our progress. So, we are guided by financial stewardship but still driven by our community pride and professional passion. Having hospital-physician alignment allows us to respond to virtually every healthcare need that this community brings forth for us to address.”

That focus on community stewardship and willingness to invest in future growth is why Dr. Embrey is proud to be part of the Baylor Scott & White – Irving hospital family, he says.

“The core physician members on our medical staff are loyal to Baylor Scott & White – Irving because of this hospital’s commitment to continue to serve our communities,” he says. “As a community grows and ages, there are other needs for a hospital. Enhancing our Cath Lab, GI Lab, surgical services, and women’s services unit is just another way we are meeting those needs. We’ve developed our services and capabilities so that we can take care of very ill patients—and we’ve continued to do that for the past 25 years.”