Most healthcare executives go their entire career without having the chance to build a new hospital. As president and CEO of Baptist Health, the largest healthcare system in Arkansas, Troy Wells already was overseeing eight hospitals and numerous other healthcare facilities. But building the new $156-million Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway has been one of the more exciting opportunities of his career.

“Anytime you get to build a new facility, it is pretty unique,” Wells said. “Often when new technology comes along, it is difficult to retrofit to an existing hospital. With a new hospital, you have the opportunity to take advantage of the latest, best commercially available technology out there. You can make sure you are taking time to be thoughtful, not just about what technology we have today that works, but anticipating the future.”

One example of the new technology is smart beds that monitor medical data automatically uploaded into Epic, the electronic medical records system. This helps nurses see trends in a patient’s weight, blood pressure and temperature, which may mean adjusting medications.

“That is a unique bedside innovation in that hospital,” said Wells. “Patients will also appreciate being able to control the room’s thermostat, lighting and TV, as well as order room service or call the nurse. Patients who would like to have information about their health condition can use a program called MyChart Bedside accessed on an electronic tablet that will be provided to them. MyChart offers access to information such as medications ordered and the tests and treatment schedule for each day.”

The hospital, scheduled to take its first patient in mid-September, has been one of the largest construction projects in the state. Its economic impact will also be massive in terms of jobs created. Initially, it is expected to employ about 300, then ramping up to 450 in the future. They have had no difficulty filling positions.

“We have a lot of people working for Baptist Health who live in that part of the state,” Wells said. “We have had a real positive response from current Baptist Health employees and other people who want to work at the new facility in Conway.”

The facility on a 37-acre campus will be cover about 260,000 square feet and include 111 beds, including 15 postpartum beds, 88 medical/surgical beds, and 8 ICU beds. There will be 8 operating rooms.

Wells said their strategic plan for increasing access to care for Arkansas has been under consideration for a long time.

“How do we expand our mission?” he asked. “Conway is a place that fits our vision of reaching more people and improving health in Arkansas in a way that is new and different, including by adding new services not available before. Conway has become a destination community for the region for things like shopping and restaurants. We think it can also be a destination community for healthcare.”

Wells earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a master’s in health services administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He worked initially in Hot Springs, the town where he grew up, before becoming administrator of a small hospital in Newport for several years. He started work at Baptist Health about ten years ago. Since joining Baptist Health, he had a lot of different experiences before being named CEO more than two years ago.

Wells describes his management style as “someone who is never satisfied where we are today, working toward always improving. In healthcare, an important goal is to have zero mistakes. That is our goal and ambition. We always want patients to get better and safer care. It extends beyond clinical care to how we run our business. We have a constant drive to improve.”

Wells said to improve, they have goals around how they invest in their employees regarding education, training and innovation.

The Baptist Health culture is mission driven and people focused.

“We do what we do to serve people,” Wells said. “You want to give them your best. Baptist Health is more than a business; it is a healing ministry. That is reflected in our culture and the attitude of our front line employees. It is something unique about who we are and how we think about what we do.”

Some of the biggest challenges he has faced are decisions about when to go after a new opportunity.

“To me, those decisions are very difficult,” he said. “When I get into something, I’m all in. You have to decide the pace at which we want to change. The things you decide not to change are important too. We have very specific goals on how we want to improve the clinical care we provide people and the experience they have when they come into the healthcare system. “Beyond that, there have been a lot of challenges relative to how healthcare is paid for. We want to be part of the solution. How do we work with the government, insurers, and other healthcare systems to create solutions to help patients, the government and the economy?”

On a personal level, he finds balancing career and family his biggest challenge. He and his wife, Mary, who grew up in Little Rock, have two children, Catherine, 8, and Charles, 4.

“We spend a lot of time together as a family,” Wells said. “I do enjoy the outdoors. I’m a hunter, I cook and I love to read. And I grow blueberries.”

He said people tend to overestimate the difficulty of his job and under estimate the difficulty of the jobs of the people at Baptist Health providing care.

“The reality is there are people a lot more important to what we do every day than me,” he said. “There are people each day saving lives and changing lives for the better. My goal is to make them more effective doing it.”

For more information, go online to: Baptist Health