HIGH PROFILE: Baptist Health CEO Troy Wells

“We thought about moving corporate out of the hospital, but one day, it just hit me: We can’t move. We need to see this every day. We need to see the families and the community coming in here every day or we’re going to forget what we’re here for.”
“We thought about moving corporate out of the hospital, but one day, it just hit me: We can’t move. We need to see this every day. We need to see the families and the community coming in here every day or we’re going to forget what we’re here for.”

Education was not a priority for young Troy Wells in Hot Springs.

In college, though, he found he couldn’t learn enough. Now 46, Wells is described by friends as thoughtful, respectful, focused and humble. But, at Baptist Health, they just call him CEO.

For Troy Wells, his first exposure to the health care system came as a toddler fixated on the television watching Emergency! , the 1970s ambulance and fire department adventure show. It made quite an impression. Young Troy loved the show so much he collected all the toy accessories.

“I had the case and the fake phone and stethoscope that made my ears red because it poked in my ear and it had all those parts and it probably should have been recalled,” Wells says with a chuckle. “But I never really thought about health care again until I went to college.”

Wells, 46, of Little Rock is beginning his fifth year as president and chief executive officer for Baptist Health with a bang. Baptist Health is expanding into the Fort Smith market, assuming control over Sparks Health System this month.

“We’re looking to make a positive impact on that part of the state, so we’re excited about that,” he says.

When Baptist chose Wells as its CEO in 2014, the hospital board stayed in-house, eschewing a national search in favor of maintaining the culture and the institutional knowledge that for years has served the system well. Wells had worked in various capacities at Baptist since 2005, building up a significant knowledge base on the intricate workings of nearly all of the system’s parts. He established his career on doing whatever the hospital needed him to do. His willingness to say “yes” without worrying about minutiae has been Wells’ credo and he credits it for his professional success.

For instance, he accepted his first job at Baptist without knowing the salary or what exactly he was going to be doing.

“You have to have a willingness to take a chance,” Wells says. “Don’t get hung up on the details. Just do it. I get frustrated when I hear young people who want to have a plan. They are so prescriptive. You have to be less prescriptive. Just find your passion and just do it. It’ll work out right if you find the right organization and the right people.”

Herren Hickingbotham, a Baptist system board member, says Wells never rests on his success.

“Troy’s leadership and management skills are superior,” Hickingbotham says. “He’s constantly trying to improve his knowledge and he’s constantly going to seminars and encouraging his team. He strives to improve himself and to make his team the best he can.”

For someone in Wells’ position, his office is modest. He’s on the ground floor at Baptist Health hospital in Little Rock off Interstate 630. He doesn’t have much of a view. Outside his window is a courtyard break area surrounded by a wall that borders a parking lot. His office furniture is at least 30 years old and shows its age. His conference table bears the scars of many meetings past.

“We thought about moving corporate out of the hospital, but one day, it just hit me: We can’t move. We need to see this every day. We need to see the families and the community coming in here every day or we’re going to forget what we’re here for.”

“He’s very humble in that regard,” Hickingbotham says. “I guess he feels like he gets the job done and doesn’t need to be more high profile. He’s very comfortable with what he has and is more focused on managing the hospital and growing the organization.”

Wells just laughed about his office decor. “It still seems like 1982. It’s not important to me. The ladies in the office harass me about it. I let them get new chairs out in the lobby, but that’s for others, not for me. I don’t require fancy furniture.”

It’s an example of how Wells stays grounded in the mission. He wants everyone working at Baptist to never forget why they do what they do. That’s the main reason he replaced pictures of hospital buildings in the system boardroom with pictures of patients.

“We thought about moving corporate out of the hospital, but one day, it just hit me: We can’t move,” he says. “We need to see this every day. We need to see the families and the community coming in here every day or we’re going to forget what we’re here for.”

“It’s a healing ministry of body, mind and spirit. Yes, we have to be financially solvent or we can’t do our ministry, but the basis of our decisions are not about money but about how do we serve people.”
“It’s a healing ministry of body, mind and spirit. Yes, we have to be financially solvent or we can’t do our ministry, but the basis of our decisions are not about money but about how do we serve people.”

LATCHKEY KID

Troy Russell Wells was born June 12, 1972, in Elgin, Ill., the older of two sons to Gerald and Diane Wells. His extended family had roots in western Kentucky and southern Illinois. After his parents got married, his father received a business opportunity in Elgin, about 35 miles northwest of Chicago, working for a soft drink distribution company. His parents soon tired of the cold winters and moved to Hot Springs where his mother’s side of the family had ties. His father worked as an electrician and later on became a home builder. His mother worked as a preschool teacher and later became a paralegal.

Growing up in Hot Springs, Wells was a self-described “latchkey kid. We were loose and free, always being outside and playing, doing sports and active riding bikes. There were woods all around our house. We would camp in the woods. It was kind of neat.”

At Lakeside High School, Wells was into a lot of extracurricular activities — football, track, choir, drama — but by his own admission didn’t take his studies as seriously as he should have. He played running back and free safety, was a member of the All-State choir and sang in the musical Oklahoma!, playing Curly, the lead cowboy.

How did he find the time to do all of those things?

“You just don’t worry about school,” Wells says with a laugh. “You seek a lot of grace from teachers. I was not a great student in high school, probably because I was doing a lot those things. Studying came after practice and running around.”

John Flaherty, the Lakeside football coach at the time, recalled that Wells was a coach-able player, doing what was asked of him. “He was a leader,” says Flaherty, now retired. “He was the type of kid you could be proud of.”

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

Wells graduated from Lakeside in 1990 and went to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, initially maintaining his high school study habits.

“The first year of college was rough, but I learned and I got better once I figured out how to learn,” Wells says. “I had never figured out how to learn. I never thought that was important. Everybody has a unique brain in how they learn. Learning for me was being more disciplined. I realized I had a window to get [college] done, and I had squandered half a year. It was time to grow up and take it seriously, like a job. I learned to ask for help.”

For Wells, academic success soon followed, and that bred confidence.

“I was underestimating what I could do academically,” he says. “I learned to run toward the hard stuff because I knew I could do it.”

He obtained a degree in microbiology from UA in 1994, thinking he would go to medical school. But he chose not to get on that path because “my heart wasn’t there.” He didn’t know what his professional future held, but he knew he wanted to work. He took a job at a beer distribution center in Hot Springs, loading trucks at 3 a.m. and typing data into the computer system.

“Every job I’ve ever had I’ve enjoyed,” he says. “I just enjoy being around other people and being productive — even loading beer trucks in the early morning.”

After a year of beer work, he decided to apply his interest in medicine to the health services administration graduate program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, earning a master’s degree in 1997. Afterward, he did a graduate fellowship at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hot Springs.

In 1999, he itched to “go out on my own and be in charge,” so he accepted a position as the administrator of the 86-bed hospital in Newport. He was 26.

Eugene Zuber, the Newport hospital operator, says he hired Wells after being impressed with his “high moral character, integrity and honesty. He’s a Christian and he’s someone to depend on. He was wise for his age. He had a high desire to learn and to be involved in health care. He wanted to know what was going on. Every day was a learning process but he adapted quickly.”

Zuber says he and his wife “kind of adopted” Wells, whom they found to be “very likable” and “humble.”

“He knows when to speak and when not to speak, but when he speaks he knows what to say,” Zuber says.

LAST FIRST DATE

It was in Newport where Wells met his wife, Mary. His friend, Henry Boyce, told him, “I’ve got a sister-in-law you need to meet.” They began dating following the party celebrating Boyce’s election as prosecuting attorney in Jackson County. “That was the last first date I ever had,” Wells says. They married in 2004.

By 2005, the Newport hospital was being sold. Wells had gotten to know Russ Herrington, the then-CEO of Baptist somewhat on a professional basis. So he called Herrington, expressing an interest to work there.

“We just agreed on a handshake,” Wells recalled. “We never talked about money or what my job was going to be.”

Was Wells worried about what would happen if things turned out differently at Baptist from what he thought they would be?

Not at all, he says, because if things did go poorly, “I’d go do something else.”

He quickly established himself as a “utility player” taking on diverse roles in administering regional hospitals, pharmacy programs, therapy, government relations, corporate compliance, and statewide clinic administration. He notes that his current role as CEO has lasted longer than any other of his other roles with Baptist.

Someone with Wells’ credentials generally has opportunities to move on to hospitals throughout the country. But Wells likes where he is just fine. As a Baptist — he’s a member of Calvary Baptist Church in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock — he relishes living the mission of Baptist Health.

“It’s not a job; it’s a ministry,” Wells says. “It’s pretty unique. Yes, there are other nonprofits that are faith-based. But I don’t know about those. I know about this one. Baptist is a growing organization, a big organization, and I never get bored. I always get to do something new. It’s a healing ministry of body, mind and spirit. Yes, we have to be financially solvent or we can’t do our ministry, but the basis of our decisions are not about money but about how do we serve people.”

In addition to the expansion into Fort Smith, Wells says he’s proud of collaboration with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to jointly establish a residency program in North Little Rock. He says it was difficult at times to follow the respected longtime CEO Herrington, but he says he has managed by trying to be “thoughtful and respectful” of the past and knowing when to make changes and when to let things lie.

COOKING FOR RONALD MCDONALD

When Wells isn’t doing hospital work, he and Mary, a dietitian, spend most of their time raising two children, Catherine, 10, and Charles, 7. With his job being so demanding, he says he couldn’t do it without the partnership of his wife. He also enjoys spending time at a duck club in Arkansas County he owns jointly with several longtime friends.

In the community, he’s a board member of Goodwill of Arkansas and often volunteers at the Ronald Mc-Donald house with his duck hunting buddies, cooking meals for family members of those with illnesses. He’s the board president of Healthy Active Arkansas, a nonprofit organization made up of government and private sector health leaders that works to improve the state’s low health and high obesity ratings.

David Messersmith, a longtime friend, says Wells brought the idea of cooking for the Ronald McDonald House to the duck hunting group.

“He said, ‘We do fine in life and we owe something to somebody. We’re going to do this,’” Messersmith recalled. “He expects a lot from those around him, professionally and personally. We were willing to accept his lead on it. Troy was always looking for something to better himself, to take the extra step. He wasn’t obsessed. He just tried to be the best he could be.”

SELF PORTRAIT

Troy Wells

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: June 12, 1972, Elgin, Ill.

MY FANTASY DINNER PARTY GUESTS WOULD INCLUDE: Anyone as long as Jerry Clower, comedian, is there. If it’s my dinner party, I’d want Jerry Clower for my own entertainment. Always regretted not being able to meet him before he died. It’s just clean fun country humor. What a personality.

I AM CURRENTLY READING: The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES INCLUDE: Caddyshack, Tin Cup and Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

FOR MY NEXT VACATION I WANT: To take a family vacation soon to Washington, D.C., and Yellowstone National Park.

ON TV I WATCH: I don’t watch much TV except for college football.

THE ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE ME: Steady. I tend to stay in the zone and not get too excited or too down. It’s served me well.

“It’s a healing ministry of body, mind and spirit. Yes, we have to be financially solvent or we can’t do our ministry, but the basis of our decisions are not about money but about how do we serve people.”

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