An Urgent Challenge in Webster County

“So are you going to get us an urgent care in Webster” was one of the first queries Scott Allen, Administrator of Webster County Health Unit, heard from a Wal-Mart clerk after settling in Webster from California. Public health was new as a career for Scott, having grown up in California EMS and Missouri was his new home. Webster County, population 42,000, has no hospital, multiple primary clinic sites and about three private providers – no urgent care (UC) and no emergency department (ED). The available limited EMS services are usually required to transport an urgent or emergency case out of the county for care, thus taking that EMS truck out of service for an extended period and not available in the county if needed.

Scott said developing an urgent care site in Webster became his #1 goal. The journey to opening of Webster’s UC site in August 2025 was not easy, but Scott found many motivated partners including the local fire chief, Marshfield Public Schools, elected officials, Webster’s large manufacturers and the county’s development director. Scott and his partners pulled data from public health and EMS, as well as embedded a specific question in the community health needs assessment (CHNA). They found that in 2022 of 12,000 Webster County ED visits, 3,000 were admitted to the hospital – that likely indicated the remaining 9,000 could have been appropriately cared for outside of the ED. And, indeed, responses to the CHNA question revealed that 46% of respondents indicated needing to seek their medical care outside of Webster County.

With successful partnership, the UC site opened August 1, 2025! The first weekend, two patients who had initially called 911 were seen in the UC appropriately rather than transported out of county to an ED. In the first month, 400 patients were seen at Webster’s UC. Scott’s leadership, in partnership with community leaders, is a perfect example of Challenge the Process, one of The Five Practices of exemplary leaders discussed in The Leadership Challenge®, 7 th edition by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. Scott says he benefited greatly from the TLC training and 360º assessment. He was reminded of the habit of Managing By Walking Around (MBWA), a leadership method proposed several years ago, recognizing it as a way to be present for his staff and engage with clientele at the health department. His most meaningful experience of TLC was having time to more fully focus and develop his vision and goal setting and then bring that back to his organization for shared visioning.

Congratulations to Scott and Webster County for accepting the ‘urgent’ challenge!