Q
What sparked your passion for health equity?
I’m the son of a physician and clinical laboratory scientist. For as long as I can remember my upbringing revolved around health workers, hospitals and clinics. My parents instilled in me that healthcare was sacred and our most vulnerable deserve our best. I walk through the world with the lens of an immigrant, a Black man, health worker and solo father of a daughter. Health Equity is fundamentally my “True North.”
Q
Where does health equity fit within the broader vision and strategy for your health system?
At Sutter Health Equity, our Health Equity Pledge is “all patients receive high quality care regardless of their circumstances. We deliver care that meets the unique needs of our communities with a commitment to ensuring access to care and optimal health outcomes for all.” We’re utilizing Healthy Places Index to understand our opportunities, to make an impact by location, we are stratifying our quality metrics to close gaps in outcomes and collecting social determinants of health data so we can proactively support our patients. We want to ensure that no community is being left behind.
We want to ensure that no community is being left behind.
Additionally, within the Sutter East Bay Market, we are deepening our partnerships with FQHCs (Federally Qualified Health Centers) to proactively provide the right care, at the right time and at the right place for our most vulnerable patients.
Q
How do you align this work with the broader business priorities of the system, such as managing costs?
Our mission is caring for our patients first and our people always. This means we’re constantly thinking about how to maximize access for our patients and ensuring our people feel we’re the best place to work. Utilizing an equity lens means every patient regardless of language, ethnicity, ability or socioeconomic factors should have a seamless experience accessing our services and that every member of our team from the operating room to the kitchen staff feels they are being heard and valued. These efforts improve continuity of care for our patients and reduce turnover within our workforce.
Q
What is your proudest accomplishment?
There is so much I am proud of in this work. When I was with San Francisco General Hospital, we were able to get more than 90 percent of all departments to stratify their quality metrics so we could close any gaps in outcomes, which can be very challenging, especially in an academic setting. While I was at John Muir Health, we explicitly made health equity a strategic priority and launched a maternal health initiative to ensure Black mothers delivering at our facility had excellent outcomes with minimal morbidities. In my current role leading Sutter East Bay Market, my dream is for all six hospitals, 15 ambulatory centers and four surgery centers to be destinations of choice for all patients to knowing we’ll proactively ensure their care is tailored to their needs no matter their walk through life.
Q
What leadership traits are most critical for C-level leaders to impact health equity in their patient populations?
There are a few traits that I find indispensable for health equity leaders:
• Authenticity is key. It's about choosing to say and do what is best for our patients and understanding the communities we serve. Walking the talk with that philosophy is critical. Everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about… therefore each and every one of the individual stories of staff, physicians and patients matter. If we ensure our most vulnerable have optimal outcomes, everyone benefits.
If we ensure our most vulnerable have optimal outcomes, everyone benefits.
• Investing heavily in relationships and trust building. Actively seeking perspectives beyond the status quo and inviting people with diversity of thought, expertise, and backgrounds to drive decision making is essential, and so is embedding health equity as a priority in partnerships and alignment with external stakeholders. By proactively spending time with community-based organizations, we are helping stakeholders to understand that as a health system, we are not just caregivers but also employers, educators, advocates and pipelines for future skills. We want to be supportive and play a key role not just in times of health crises.
When it comes to trust, it's one thing to learn about the communities you're serving; but it's another thing to understand the history of the communities you’re serving. I have learned trust is like a glass; once it's shattered, repairing is difficult. We have to pick up the pieces, clean up and ensure no one is hurt onward. In my current role, I am very intentional to build trusting relationships with all parts of the community. Ultimately, it’s crucial to engage both hearts and minds because perception is often reality.
• Another critical trait is leading with humility. I never assume I have the solution; I first and foremost want to work with others to understand the problem we're trying to solve. Jumping to solutions without clarity on the problem is a path to failure.
• Strategic vision: The ability to strategically embed health equity in the organization’s goals as a priority, not a ‘side project.’ Healthcare is tied to economic well-being, and health system leaders have a key role in economic development and support.
• Change leadership: Specifically, the ability to communicate and reinforce a vision and priorities for health equity at all levels of the organization; empowering leaders at all levels to drive change themselves as well.
• Innovation: openness and ability to drive change using technology to scale.
Q
What is the best example of C-level leadership with a health equity lens that you have seen?
The late Bernard Tyson was incredibly influential to me. He walked the talk to eliminate disparities. His death shook me to my core, shed light on how much of an existential crisis this work is and forced me to think about the world I want to create for my daughter. If we really want to improve the health of our community, eliminating disparities is a necessary priority.
If we really want to improve the health of our community, eliminating disparities is a necessary priority.
Q
What's next for health equity and how can C-level leaders prepare?
I'm deeply appreciative that regulatory agencies are investing in health equity and ensuring that disparities are identified. This is a major milestone. I'm thrilled that we as an industry will be tracking social determinants of health. Most health decisions are made beyond the hospital/clinic walls, so this is critical.
My thesis on Artificial Intelligence in healthcare is this – AI could reach a point of proactively identifying and possibly understanding (1) what we don’t know that we don’t know and (2) how those unknown unknowns can limit our ability to have sustainable impact. This possibility within the intersection of culture, socioeconomics and healthcare access makes me hopeful. Of course, AI isn’t perfect, and it relies on its inputs. We all have inherent biases we are unaware of, so we need to collectively ensure we are providing AI with the best information possible for answers, ideas, algorithms that can help us serve all patients better.
Q
If you could envision a dream for the future of health equity, what would it look like?
My first dream is we get to a place where all hospitals, clinics, health plans and life sciences partner to stratify quality metrics, close gaps and share what we learn from the data. This could disrupt health disparities upstream in a significant way. My final dream is this becomes a goal.
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