She loves seeing patients overcome critical health problems, progressing from ambulation, cognitive function and on to dignified independence at Longview Rehabilitation Hospital.

By Joycelyne Fadojutimi

Longview’s Toyia Urbaniak married husband Lawrence thirty-nine years ago. Nowadays they are glutted with love and pride for their grown children Brock and Julia, who have given them four grandchildren -Kyley, Eli, Makaio, and Adaline. They all adore each other and savor the sweet sensation of being a close-knit, mutually supportive family.

“I love being a wife, mother and a Nonna,” says Toyia.

Her heritage is a sumptuous blend of Sicilian, English, Scottish and French. Their forebears let nothing stop them from realizing their aspirations when they came to the New World early in the twentieth century to escape severe poverty. Their avenue to success was farming, and with its emphasis on hard work this vocation has impressed on Toyia the necessity of being industrious, loyal, and honest.

“They worked hard to establish themselves in America, and were successful in embracing the American dream,” she says. “They faced fierce discrimination, but did not let that deter them, and were successful in embracing the American dream.”

Her parents also bequeathed upon her strong leadership ability and the realization that faith in her Creator is essential. Seeking God’s will enables her to stay centered, be ethical and confident to press forward into the unknown and to acknowledge her mistakes and learn from them. She also treasures the influence of positive role models.

During the early 1980s she worked for a lady who pointed out that that many women in the workplace trip themselves up by feeling that, as females, they have to be overly aggressive and forceful when all they really need to do is be intentional and assertive. Her sincerity is clear in her refusal to ever ask anyone to do anything she is unwilling to do herself.

Four years ago, this philosophy really came to the fore when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer with secondary metastasis to her brain, spine, and sacrum. Although she has never been a smoker, she carries a gene that sparked the malignancy. This trial has shown her the value of living life to its fullest and sharing her splendid work ethic and commitment to excellence with the team members she supervises so that she leaves them with an example of the best possible work legacy and the ability to forge profitably ahead without her should the need arise.

“I made the decision then to not live in fear,” she says. “I am going to die the day God says that I will. Nothing can change that.”

She and Lawrence met in Parachute, Colorado. In 1992 she took her BA in social studies and secondary education Summa Cum Laude from Mesa State University in Grand Junction, Colorado. She then juggled raising two incredibly young children with working as a history teacher for 10th graders in Carthage, Texas for two years before heading back to college in pursuit of a master’s degree. In 1995 she pulled down an MCD, master’s in communication disorders from the Louisiana State University Health School of Allied Health in Shreveport. She started leading at a young age.

At the tender age of eighteen she had started her leadership career as assistant manager of a Mr. Gattis Pizza parlor in Louisiana. When she was twenty, she became a stay-at-home mom before returning to college in 1987 and pulling down her credentials. She began working in long-term care in 1995 and is great at it.

“”In 1997 someone took a chance on me as a supervisor of the speech therapy program at Good Shepherd Medical Center,” she says. “In my six-year tenure there my job changed to supervisor of all the hospital-based therapy and supervisor over their Acute Patient Rehab Unit.”

Branching out yet further she and her father, in 2004, opened a staffing agency, calling it Lighthouse Therapy Services. She oversaw the operation’s clinical side when her father took care of financing and scheduling. She benefitted greatly from her experience at Good Shepherd as she worked alongside her therapists while simultaneously directing the speech and occupational therapy staff. Her clients included such East Texas health agencies as LTAC, Long Term Care and hospitals, but the time came to move on.

“After my father passed away in 2014, I sold my company and worked for the company that absorbed mine for two years,” she says. “I was the director of speech therapy and quality director.”

In 2016 she accepted the position of program director of the acute rehabilitation unit with Kindred Healthcare in Nacogdoches, working flawlessly there for six years. In 2022 she earned her first-ever CEO post when Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals hired her. Nine months later Lifepoint Health bought the facility and renamed it Longview Rehabilitation Hospital.

“Lifepoint Health had purchased Kindred Healthcare right before I left the company to work for Everest,” she says. “Another work ethic I have always lived by is to never burn bridges,” she says. “That served me well as LifePoint Health bought four Everest Hospitals.”

She and the companies she has worked for have truly been blessings to each other. God’s hand has always been present and crucial in her career moves as she focuses on team growth and compassionate and competent patient care. She loves watching patients overcome critical health problems and progressing from ambulation, cognitive function and on to dignified independence.

“I have been at this current position for almost three years,” she says. “My desire is to remain here until I retire.”

Her vocational choices reflect her passion for assisting others. She loves helping patients learn to talk again, feed themselves, communicate and safely function in their home environments. Leading her teams of talented, caring healthcare professionals while actively, expertly participating in their work gives her a glowing sense of accomplishment by being “a part of pulling all the necessary pieces together to transform the lives of those who enter our doors.”

She takes very seriously the trust her patients and their families placed in her to ensure a quality level of life in the future. For Toyia, those she treats, she considers them essentially as family who count on her and her teams to make an enormous and positive impact. Furthermore, her company is magnificently effective in its objective of ever-improving health, and it provides her with boundless resources in the quest to deliver top-notch cutting-edge medical services. She also serves as a voice for those in need.

She is an advocate for those requiring specific and crucial therapy with Managed Medicare while she also differentiates between this level of care and such other, post-acute settings as skilled nursing, rehabilitation, LTAC and home health services. Such initiatives are vital for patients of stroke, traumatic accidents, neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, orthopedic disorders, heart and lung disease and various other conditions and who cannot live safely alone or see to basic needs.

“It is critical that people know the differences in each setting,” she says. “All are needed, but all are very different.”

Everyone requiring acute rehabilitation services in a relevant facility or freestanding rehabilitation hospital can count on focused and intense physical, occupational and speech therapy, and attention from acute care rehab nurses with one- to-six or one-to-seven nurse-to-patient ratios, and from trained rehab doctors and internal medicine physicians.

The rehab medical director sees these people at least three times weekly, and more times if needed along with making certain each patient is directed to the correct department for their specific needs. Being sent to the right place is essential.

“The challenges in the post-acute setting that I’m in arise when insurance, stakeholders and patients don’t know the differences in the service options,” she says.

Toyia fills her days with reviews of patient outcomes and requirements, financial reviews, community outreach, ensuring the rehab teams’ needs are met in order to provide treatment, patient advocacy, patient, and staff satisfaction, educating the leadership team and staff with educational opportunities and therefore ensuring delivery of the best possible treatment, equipment, and procedures. She constantly collaborates with her competent and experienced corporate team in keeping the hospital efficient and productive. Not all of her work is within the facility’s confines. The local Zonta Club is a vital resource in assuring women and children require adequate medical care.

“There are days when I am out in the community volunteering with the amazing Longview Chamber of Commerce and participating as a member in the charitable Zonta Club of Longview,” she says. “Another important facet of my job is visiting referral sources and people served. I look for input to make sure the hospital is a good partner.”

She also has no use for ego in her work, looking upon herself as a “facilitator, cheerleader, a servant and a mentor” rather than as a typical CEO in a business sense. Keeping her talented team functioning at the very top level is her main mission as she focuses on the success and welfare of others as she strives to be both humble and effective in making positive differences in the community and for stakeholders. She seeks to be a champion for patient care and recovery.

“These goals happen to be the core values for the great company I work for,” she says.

Her work on behalf of others is not limited to being a champion of physical/neurological health, either. Since she was in her twenties she has served God as a Sunday School teacher, youth leader, lay speaker and lay leader. She takes very seriously the Biblical adjuration that faith without works is dead as she both proclaims and lives her Christian life. Again, she learns from her errors as a fallible human in God’s service.

“I make mistakes every day, but I self-assess my behavior and lean on the Savior,” she says. “I owe everything to Him.”

Toyia advises women wanting to reach the top in their varied professions to work with talented people, have a strong work ethic, root out and eradicate their own shortcomings while concentrating on their own strengths. Humility and strength are crucial in achieving success, but do not be strong-armed and step on others in seeking expertise and success. Enthusiasm for one’s profession is a sure route to the top but never forget to give credit to others or those who deserve it and go the extra mile.

“Never put work above God or family,” she says. “Go out of your way to help others.”

“Earn respect and promotions,” she says. “Be a transformational leader.”