Leadership Profile: Steven Webb

The inscription above his door says it all ... Love God, Love People

By Nancy Robertson

The premature birth of his son started Steven Webb, President and CEO of Unity Health, on his path to health care administration. “As the parent of a preemie, you come into close contact with compassion in every hospital department involved in the care of your baby,” he says. “My wife, Elizabeth, and I were amazed and so grateful for the many people with whom we had contact over the two-month period our son spent in the NICU. Though it’s now 18 years later, I still remember the case coordinators, respiratory therapists, residents … and the cafeteria cashier, the dietary workers. They all became very familiar to us in those months. Teams coordinated with one another, and they made us feel confident. There are times in our lives when God simply opens a door. I had a desire for my work to be a ministry, and the people in health care opened my eyes to work that makes a difference.”

Webb says he didn’t know how to go about entering the health care field. At the time of his son’s birth, he was in the insurance industry, having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management. “I talked to a number of young men and women in health care, and I learned about the master’s program in Health Care Administration being offered at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. I enrolled in the program and completed it in 2006.” His first foray into hospital administration began soon after, when he was named CEO of Good Shepherd Medical Center in Linden, Texas. “I wish every administrator could start work in a small hospital,” he says. “It affords you the opportunity to see, firsthand, how every role in the hospital functions. It’s a learning experience like none other.” He says that being able to experience leadership with teams in the small hospital environment is extremely valuable.

After several years at Good Shepherd, Webb returned to Arkansas and began filling leadership roles in a large Arkansas-based health system. He served as Administrator, Vice President of Patient Services, and Vice President/ Administrator. Nearly four years ago, he was named President and CEO of Unity Health, which brought him home to Searcy.

Steven Webb, President/CEO of Unity Health Photo: George Dillin Photography

We Asked...

What’s on your music playlist?

I haven’t caught up with technology and I don’t have a playlist. My radio presets are Contemporary Christian, Classic Rock, and 80s-90s Country Music.

What is the best advice you were ever given?

My dad started telling me as a preteen through my teenage years two pieces of advice: Number 1, “Use your brain,” Number 2, “Keep your mouth shut and your options open.”

Do you have a favorite movie? Why do you like it?

I have several favorite movies. The one I quote a lot is Remember the Titans. I like it because of the leadership lessons it addresses, as well as lessons about overcoming differences and working together to be champions. The lessons I learned playing sports myself continue to help me in my professional career.

What would you be doing if you weren’t in health care?

Without a doubt, I would be the lead actor in the Jurassic Park movies. In all seriousness, health care is my ministry. If I were not in health care, I would be working in some way to serve others.

What do you like to do in your downtime?

With four teenagers at home, I don’t get much downtime. I enjoy spending time with my family at the lake, working with my son restoring my grandfather’s truck, and watching my girls’ volleyball games, theater performances, and dance competitions.

(Top) Dr. Roddy Lochala, CMO, and Dr. Amy Daniel working COVID testing drive-thru at Unity Health. (Left) Steven Webb, President/CEO working the drive-thru portion at CommUnity of Caring, Unity Health’s annual medical mission.

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STAYING AHEAD OF COVID

In January of 2020, Webb says Unity Health-White County Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Roddy Lochala, first approached him with serious concerns about a new virus making its way to the U.S. “He told me we needed to spend 50% of our time, starting right then, to prepare for the coming of SARS CoV-2,” Webb says. “That was a real eye-opener. We immediately began making preparations and, because of Dr. Lochala’s foresight, we have been able to not only stay one step ahead of the virus and its repercussions, we’ve been able to help other hospitals as they planned for the disease.”

In those earliest days of the pandemic, Dr. Lochala served as an advisor to Luminare, Inc. in collaboration with Microsoft for Startups, to deploy QuickScreen, an online self-assessment tool for consumers. “There was so much fear and confusion in the populace,” Webb says. “The web-based screening tool Dr. Lochala helped develop gave people at-home guidance as to whether or not they should seek testing for COVID-19.” By answering a series of questions online, people at home could determine their need – or not – to pursue testing for the virus. The tool was adopted not only in Arkansas, but also in a Houston, Texas hospital network, and from there was used more than five million times all over the world.

To determine the number of COVIDspecific beds and units they might need, Webb and his planning team studied the COVID-19 spread in Italy. “In those early days, we were all watching Italy as an example of what might be coming,” he says. “We started determining how many negative pressure spaces we might need, and we devised some creative solutions for where, on our Specialty Care campus, we could repurpose areas as COVID units.”

He credits Unity’s engineering team with creating 43 negative pressure rooms in an old ICU – “just in case.” In the coming months, these rooms were literally lifesavers.

Another challenge from the first months of 2020: the shortage of ventilators. Early on, Unity Health

developed contracts for leasing ventilators above the number they had readily available. But Webb didn’t stop there. “We work closely with Harding University here in Searcy,” Webb says. “When a national shortage of ventilators seemed likely, we worked with teams at Harding to build some working prototypes of ventilators from scratch. Knowing that we had those prototypes as our backup was a comfort. Though we never had to use their technology, we’re grateful to the people at Harding for their expertise.”

Staying ahead of the curve on personal protective equipment (PPE) supply was a challenge for hospitals everywhere during the first year of COVID, and it remains so in some areas today. “Again, we’ve all experienced many times when God made his presence known during this pandemic,” Webb says. “We were down to six N-95s of a certain size – not six boxes, six masks – at one point. That afternoon, a construction worker came in with boxes of N-95s of the exact size we needed, saying they were from his boss.”

At another point the hospital was down to 12 antigen tests. They lasted until a shipment of 1,200 arrived, just in time to replenish stock.

With community coordination, Unity Health held ‘Park and Pray’ events to support its staff and patients. People gathered on the health system’s campus simply to pray together from the safety of their cars.

“We’ve been pretty open about thanking God for divine intervention during these years of COVID,” Webb says. “For all who are in health care, I imagine it’s pretty normal.”

RIGHT EQUIPMENT, RIGHT TIME

Whoever would have thought that the purchase of a Xenex LightStrikeTM robot for the cleaning of rooms could save on PPE during COVID? “We used the robot to zap N-95 masks when our supplies again ran low,” Webb says. “This expanded the life of our PPE and gave everyone peace of mind that their masks were safe.”

Another “right equipment, right time” coincidence: “We desperately needed the ability to process COVID-19 tests locally,” Webb explains. “Imagine our relief when a new Roche processor, which we purchased for testing in other capacities, was approved by the FDA as one of the first to allow COVID PCR testing!” That providential occurrence allowed Unity to process 96 tests every three hours around the clock. It reduced turnaround time on test results to 24 hours, and it allowed Unity to quickly process tests for other health care entities in all four corners of the state.

And freezers. Remember the extra-low temperature freezing capacity needed for the justdeveloped Pfizer vaccine? Unity Health had not one, but two of those freezers, and was able to become the regional hub for vaccine storage as the Pfizer vaccine rolled out of production.

Unity Health was an early provider of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) when they were first made available as therapies for those who contracted COVID. “We were the third busiest mAb site in the state,” Webb says. “We adopted the mAb therapies early, educating our providers with video programming to get them on board. As a health system, we did everything we possibly could to lower people’s chances of developing serious disease and worked hard to help them stay out of the hospital.”

Patients, families, employees of Unity Health, and community members were offered tailored services to help them keep up with COVID rules and concerns. “We became a trusted voice at the onset and height of the pandemic with our social media presence on Facebook,” Webb says. “Like many other hospitals, we used this marketing tool to reach people where they are. We also reached out to our local Spanish-speaking community through El Puente, Searcy’s Spanish Services Center. We have been diligent about staying in the public eye, keeping the public informed about vaccine availability, masking and social distancing protocols, testing availability, and other COVID updates.” As masking protocols change, citizens can always check the health system’s Facebook page for the most current information. And what about those who find themselves more anxious and more stressed after more than two years of COVID isolation/regulations? Unity Health has offered a toll-free COVID hotline where members of the community could call and be connected with a licensed behavioral health expert. All calls were confidential. “This is a service we wanted to provide to the community because COVID is taking a mental toll as well as a physical toll on people everywhere,” Webb says. “It’s another way we’ve tried to stay one step ahead of what COVID throws at us, keeping our community in touch with the help they need.”

TAKING IT NATIONAL

Webb says Dr. Lochala and the entire Unity team continue to work closely to keep ahead of what COVID might bring next. “When COVID was at its height, [Arkansas] Senator John Boozman visited Unity and saw what we had been able to accomplish. In fact, he brought Senator Tom Cotton, Representative French Hill, and Representative Liz Cheney to to visit our Searcy campuses to learn how we were staying ahead of the disease. We told them it was a matter of recognizing the challenges ahead and devoting the time, early on, to planning and to remaining faithful to the people we serve, both associates and community residents. We know our team has done all it can to care for this community. We’re all just thankful for the opportunity to serve.”

The inscription above Webb's door tells the story of his service: "Love God, Love People."

(Above) Xenex LightStrike Robot ( Bottom) Citizens were invited to "Park and Pray," praying with medical center staff for patients and for all of those working to fight COVID.