Follow The Brand Podcast with Host Grant McGaugh

EO – Elevating Outcomes, Empowering Opportunity: From Crisis to Catalyst with Dr. Elizabeth Oyekan

• Grant McGaugh CEO 5 STAR BDM • Season 6 • Episode 42

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Join us for a compelling conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Oyekan, Vice President of Imaging and Pharmacy Services at Stanford Healthcare, who opens up about her transformative journey through the healthcare leadership landscape. From her early days climbing the ranks at Kaiser Permanente to an introspective phase caring for her aging parents, Dr. Oyekan's path is nothing short of inspiring. Her time in consulting profoundly reshaped her views on patient-centered care, adding depth to her leadership style and renewing her sense of purpose.

Dr. Oyekan unveils her unique LEADERSHIP philosophy, a blueprint for success that champions leading by example, maintaining accountability, and embracing interdependence. Her pioneering role as the first African-American female regional vice president in operations and quality sets the stage for a powerful discussion on authentic and sustainable leadership. The episode navigates through reducing healthcare variation, optimizing care environments, and enhancing vendor management, all while prioritizing quality and patient experience.

The synergy between our host, Grant McGaugh, and Dr. Oyekan underscores a shared commitment to innovation and growth in healthcare. As they explore strategies for healthcare value optimization, the conversation steers towards personal branding, maintaining a growth mindset, and the crucial role of collaboration. Concluding with mutual appreciation, this episode celebrates the dynamic partnership and looks forward to future endeavors, showcasing the power of personal and professional development in the realm of healthcare leadership.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest marketing trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates from us, be sure to follow us at 5starbdm.com. See you next time on Follow The Brand!

Speaker 1:

Welcome everyone to the Follow Brand Podcast. This is your host, grant McGaugh, and I'm going to take it all the way out to the West Coast. I have not been there in a while, but I've been talking to Dr Elizabeth O'Yakin over the last month or two or maybe three. Matter of fact, and we have a mutual friend that's Denzel Ross, and she was talking to Denzel and Denzel brought up my name. She said I'm going to look him up. I'm going to look up Grant McGaugh. I like what he does and I want to have a conversation with him and see how we can work together. So I want to bring her to the stage because I love me some. Dr O'Yagan, she is wonderful. She has a great story. We're going to share some of that story with you today and I encourage you to really get involved, think about some of these things that she's talking about and let's have a great conversation. So, dr Oyekun, you'd like to introduce yourself?

Speaker 2:

Thank you very much, grant. It's truly an honor and a privilege to be here with you today. I am Dr Elizabeth Oyekon and I am the current vice president of imaging and pharmacy services for the Stanford Healthcare and Stanford Healthcare Tri-Valley. It's a privilege to be here and to engage with you today on the topic of just healthcare overall and leadership as well.

Speaker 1:

Well, we want to talk about you as well, because your story I found very intriguing. Everyone has a pivotal moment, If you really think back in time, that everyone has a pivotal moment. If you really think back in time, you've had defining moments in your life that put you in the trajectory that you're in now. Maybe over the last five years you've been working in a certain role or you had certain responsibility that started some time ago. We got to talking. You were talking about a kind of permanente, how that kind of catapulted you in a whole other direction, for where you were at that time in life. Talk to us just a little bit about your journey.

Speaker 2:

All right. So I really have had the privilege when I was at Kaiser Permanente, to have very strong mentors, sponsors and coaches. That really helped me. Even though I started out in pharmacy, I very quickly pivoted to taking on a lot more responsibilities, and my last responsibility there was being the regional vice president of operations and of quality for the region of Colorado. And then, in about 2016, I had to go through a transformation in my career in my career where I had to step down from operations into a whole new world of consulting in order to give me the flexibility I needed, as well as the time I needed in order to become a caregiver for my parents.

Speaker 2:

And I actually call this time a wilderness period in my life because I witnessed firsthand the challenges as well as really the wonderfulness of old age, as well as also seeing the great empathy and care that people gave in the healthcare system and what it did is it just further deepened and reshaped my perspective around healthcare leadership, around healthcare in general.

Speaker 2:

The other thing that it did during that period that I had to take care of my parents is that it gave me a whole new perspective on the power of empathy, the power of true patient-centered care and really the opportunities to engage in my community my community.

Speaker 2:

So, after about five years of being in the consulting world and being a caregiver, my incredibly wonderful sister in England decided to take over the care of my parents, and what that did is it gave me the opportunity again to rethink of what I wanted to do in health care, and what I said was, regardless of what I did in health care, whether I stayed in the consulting world, whether I went back into operations, one of the things that I gained was a new and a renewed sense of purpose, and so today I can tell you that what my professional mission is and what I aspire to continuously do every single day, is to make the lives of people better through leadership, through education and through community, and that's what I hope I am now able to give every single day in the work that I do, and that really stemmed from that wilderness period in my career journey.

Speaker 1:

I'm so glad you talked through that. Sometimes we feel vulnerable. We don't really put those things out there, but realizing that some of the challenges we go through in life are actually the catapult to get you to a different level or a higher level in what you're doing me on your track for leadership was because of your consulting background, because you went through this wilderness period. When you got back into leadership at a healthcare organization, you had a different brand. They saw you differently. You had a wider outlook. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

All right. So before I went into the consulting world, I was definitely in operations and I had been in operations from starting in pharmacy all the way to overseeing the operations for a total health system in the Colorado region, as well as quality, when I went into my wilderness period and I went into the consulting world. Now, looking back, I realize it's probably one of the best things that ever happened. And why do I say that that ever happened? And why do I say that In the consulting world, what I learned was the whole idea of strategy. At a 30,000 foot level, I knew strategy boots on the ground in health systems, in operations, but strategy at a global level working with health plans but strategy at a global level working with health plans, working with manufacturers, was a whole different ballgame. And so overseeing all those departments that I've seen, as well as now having that global perspective of health care, health care trends, what that has been able to do for me are the following things First of all, it's allowed me to integrate different disciplines because I have an understanding of, like, the core needs of the disciplines, and it's also allowed me to bridge strategy and execution, bridge strategy and execution, so having a vision and also being able to execute it on global scales as well, as departmentals at a departmental level have been able to do. The other thing that has also occurred in bringing the consulting arm and bringing the operation arm together is really driving innovation and systemness in an organization and, very, very importantly, it's really allowed me to understand the critical importance of having relationships, of collaborating, and not just collaborating within departments that is very important but collaborating across the organization but outside of the organization. So, in consulting, when we are collaborating, we're bringing in providers, we're bringing in pharma, we're bringing in pharma, we're bringing in politicians, we're bringing in a number of stakeholders in the healthcare space. So that's what also this allowed me to do.

Speaker 2:

One of the most important things, though, that I will say that I have gained, looking at this global perspective, is really understanding the importance of health equity and how health equity really it's a thread that is woven through every discipline in healthcare in order for us to achieve what I call the aspirational vision of healthcare that we have in this country, and that's what I call the quintuple aim.

Speaker 2:

It's us looking to see how do we improve care, improve access, improve patient outcomes, improving the cost of care, but also improving the interactivity of our providers and our staff in order to bring equity to everyone. So that is really what having this global perspective of operations and consulting that's what it was able to do. And so, when I was being interviewed for the role that I currently have, when I asked you know what were the core things that had them choose me over 30 plus candidates and they said that the ability that you were able to bring bringing in operation, ability to execute and bringing in global strategy and vision was something that was unique, that they had not really seen. So that is what, even though, looking back, when I had to switch from operations to consulting, I said, oh my gosh, this is a whole different to consulting. I said, oh my gosh, this is a whole different game. It was very challenging, but now, looking back, I could not have had a better period in my life to continue to grow professionally.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're glad that that happened. You know, at the time you're like, you know it's kind of. You know it's easy to look back sometimes and sometimes it's hard to look forward, especially if you're going through a challenge. You can't see the positivity always in certain situations. But this is the path of growth and we have choices. We can either keep going forward, we can fall back, or we can just stay in that status quo.

Speaker 1:

You took on the challenge because of your values. You helped your parents I thought that was wonderful Put you on a different track, got into consulting and then, when you came back to the healthcare leadership, you were ready. You were ready. You were probably much further along than you would have been if you had taken a different route. Now most people don't know. I'm going to bring out one of your secrets. You're an author. You have written several books on leadership. I want to first know what. What was your passion about writing the books? What propelled you Like? You know I need to get this out and then tell us about what the book is about and who you're looking to impact.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, grant. So I have had the privilege of writing a number of books, some in the area of health equity in collaboration with team members, some in the area of pharmacy and care delivery models, but the one I would say that I am most proud of is the one that I wrote around leadership, and let me give you a little bit of background as to why I even finally wrote that book. Okay, as I said earlier on, by background I am a pharmacist, and when I became the regional vice president for operations and quality also the first African-American female to hold that type of a position people kept asking me, elizabeth, what's your secret to success when it comes to leadership? Because it appears that no matter what department so whether you're in primary care or surgical services, whether you're in pharmacy or radiology, no matter where you are you seem to be able to be successful in leading your teams. And so people asked me what is my secret to success? And I said you know what? I don't know if I have a secret, but what I started to do, I started to really think what are those components about leadership that have become core to how I lead, leadership that have become core to how I lead and believe it or not, what I realized was that the term leadership is not just a noun, it's not just a verb, it's actually an acronym. It's an acronym to how I lead on a consistent basis. It's an acronym that allows me to check in to say am I leading in the way that will make wherever I am better for me being a part of that department or part of that entity than it was before I came? And so, just, very, very high level, what are those 10 elements of leadership? So, as I said, leadership to me is an acronym. And what's that acronym?

Speaker 2:

First and foremost, l lead by example. I lead by example and I lead with a core purpose. As I mentioned earlier on, I have a mission. My mission is to make people's lives better, and so leading with a purpose, leading with passion, is the first thing. The next is E engagement Really engage others, really understand, listen to people. What is it that they, what are the opportunities in order for us to see things in alignment. So, really engage, really effectively communicate.

Speaker 2:

A is accountability. I tell people the buck stops with me, accountability. I tell people the buck stops with me If I'm given the responsibility. Even if somebody else messes up. I am still responsible. The buck stops with me. I do my absolute best never to make excuses for what I do.

Speaker 2:

D is development. I am a continuous and a consistent learner, always learning, always looking to grow. And so D is really develop oneself and as a leader, it's not just about you being developed, it's how do you develop your teams. So really focusing on development. E the next E is execution. I tell people we can have tons of ideas, but you know what innovation really is? Innovation is actually ideas coupled with execution and when you're able to execute, it really sets you apart from people that just have ideas. It really sets you apart from people that just have ideas.

Speaker 2:

R is about recognizing and acknowledging others. I always look to catch people doing the right thing. You know, a lot of times you hear people always criticizing I see you doing this wrong, I see you doing that wrong. I always say recognize people for doing the right thing and always let them know hey, that was a great thing that you did. S is for solidifying relationships. Really, relationships is the glue that holds everything that we do together. So really solidify those relationships.

Speaker 2:

H is about health, not just physical health, mental health, social health, spiritual health. I really focus on trying to make that core to who I am. I is interdependence. A lot of times people become very good at the silo that they're in. What I tell people is if you want to gain new knowledge, new ideas, really focus on interdependence across the different verticals and the different silos. Last but not least is P. I tell people make leadership personal. Whether it's work leadership personal, whether it's work-life balance, whether it's work-life integration. Make leadership personal to you, because when it's personal to you, you will be authentic in what you do and that will allow you to lead in a very sustainable manner. So I share that framework with people. To let people know that I check in literally every month. I check in myself and I say how am I doing on these 10 elements of leadership and where am I doing well, where do I need to maybe do a little bit of a lift? And just to let you know, for example, in January, I'm realizing now that hey.

Speaker 2:

I haven't been doing the physical exercise as much as I need to, and so I am out there. Yesterday I went after church, I went and I played squash, you know, in order to get that health up. But without this active focus on those 10 elements, sometimes it's very easy to focus on some and not on the others. So that is, overall, my insights and that is really my philosophy of leadership.

Speaker 1:

I love that. That was so you put that together so succinctly. I don't think I said that right Succinctly, Because what you just said leadership as an acronym if you drop any one of those letters, it doesn't spell it correctly, it's not pronounced correctly, so you've got to use all of them.

Speaker 2:

That's great. I like that. I like that, yep that. I like that Yep.

Speaker 1:

Now, one of the things we worked together and we came up with a tagline and I love it. You know E-O, you know Elizabeth Oyegin, dr E-O elevating outcomes, empowering opportunity and I believe that it aligns with your brand around health equity and being an advocate and especially in your role as a healthcare administrator, understanding what you mean to the community. Talk to us a little bit more about your core principles and what drives you as a leader.

Speaker 2:

There are a lot of principles. There are a number of principles I have, but let me just share a couple of principles that I have championed over time, and that is health equity and innovation, and I see these two elements as really significant components to the future of healthcare. When you think of health equity, what I think of are social drivers of health. When I think of innovation, I think of precision medicine, I think of digital, I think of AI, I think of technology, I think of digital, I think of AI, I think of technology, and I feel like when we bring health equity and social determinants and social drivers of health and you bring it into the focus of innovation, what we can do in healthcare then is we can really close gaps, care gaps of patients, we can improve access to care and we can personalize people's treatments.

Speaker 2:

So I see innovation and health equity really as two sides of the same coin. That's the way I look at it, because innovation brings and it amplifies the impact of care, and what equity does is it makes sure that no one is left behind. So one brings that impact and it amplifies the impact of care. The other makes sure that everyone, no matter who you are, no matter what zip code you live in, you get access to that, and so when you bring health equity and when you bring innovation together, what we see happening is it goes to now four we have better outcomes, we have greater value in our healthcare ecosystem and, most of all, we have healthier communities, and with healthier communities we make a difference in everybody's lives. So those are just components that I would say I have championed to help make a difference.

Speaker 1:

I'm curious now. I don't know if that's part of your V4 principles or something outside of that. I do know that you're in the imaging world, the pharmacy world. It gives you another, unique perspectives. When you're sitting at the table, you're in the C-suite conversations. How does your unique perspectives bring value to all the different peer groups and organizational structures boards and that type of thing to bear?

Speaker 2:

I would say because I have had. If you think about it, I have not just had pharmacy and imaging. That is what I have now, but in the past I have had pharmacy and imaging, I've had surgical services and primary care, I've had medical specialty and nursing. So when I look at what I have had, when I come to the boardroom, I come with a more global perspective of the healthcare system, and that is something that people tend to respect and tend to know that I am bringing to the table a focus on the global perspectives of healthcare. I think the other thing is, because I have also had that perspective, I am able to look at how do we transform care delivery, how do we have operational excellence but at the same time, how do we maintain financial sustainability. And one of the things that I have been able to do as I have worked in the different service lines and in the different departments is I've created strategies that I bring to the table as well.

Speaker 2:

So you mentioned V4 as an example. I will give you a little bit about V4. It actually started out as V3. And what is this V3? V3 started out as variation, venue and vendor management.

Speaker 2:

When I was the regional vice president, one of the challenges we had some major challenges that brought significant financial loss, and so with that financial loss came what do we do? And, of course, in a lot of organizations, when there's significant financial loss, the first thing people do is they cut staffing. And while we had to do some labor management, what I said is that we needed to make our cost sustainability and our financial sustainability more holistic. Sustainability more holistic and because of understanding the various departments, I was able to say, you know what? There's a lot of variation in how we do things, in how we deliver care, in our processes and all of that. And how can we reduce that variation? Because one of the things you'll find in the literature is that when you reduce variation in care, when you reduce unwanted variation in care, the first thing that you will see is that that improves quality and it reduces cost at the same time. The next V is venue. So the question really became how are we, you know, are we having patients having procedures in the inpatient that really should be in the ambulatory setting? So we started looking at how can we optimize where patients get their care, both for the patient's perspective and patient cost, but also the organizational costs. And then the third thing which saved us probably the most money was vendor management looking to see how many vendors do we have, what's our contracting all about, and all of that. And so when we did that, just to let you know, in the first year from the V3 perspective, we saved over $14 million.

Speaker 2:

Now I've taken it one step further. In my current role, my current role, I am now having it as V4, because what I've now added is value. What I now want people to think about, regardless of what department, what service line people are in, I want people to realize that whatever we come up with moving forward, in addition to reducing unwanted variation, in addition to reducing unwanted variation, in addition to optimizing the venues for patients and organization, and in addition to the vendor management, I now want us to focus on value as we move forward, focusing on the value equation which is quality times, patient experience over the cost of delivering that care, and when we put that into perspective, that before becomes a key principle for operationalizing excellence moving forward. It also gives a growth mindset and it helps people become very focused and targeted in what they do.

Speaker 1:

I am so glad that you gave that perspective, because now I see you more. Sometimes you read a title like all right, she knows a lot about pharmacy, knows a lot about imaging and, as you just alluded to, that's just one of the things and that's what your current role is. But you're much more. You are holistic in who you are. As Dr Elizabeth O'Yagan, you look at the wholeness of what you bring to the table and I love what your philosophies are and what your go-to strategy is. You've gotten a great track record when it comes to finances, financial turnarounds. You've done a lot of that. You've got great metrics. You've got great employee engagement. These are facts that are quantifiable in what you shared with me and what I was able to just discern on my own. It's been wonderful working with you and I am so glad that you have joined us on the Follow Brand Podcast.

Speaker 1:

And there's one more question I'd like to ask you because I think this is important. You also have a daughter that's over in the UK. She's into her career now and then she's doing her thing. You're at your point in time in your career. If you had to give her any advice, if you had to say you know what. Here's something that maybe you want to look at that. If I, when I was your age, I wasn't really focused on what would you say to her?

Speaker 2:

Let me tell you one of the first things I said to her after I met you. I said Doyen and, just so you know, I'm privileged to be married to a wonderful guy, richard, for over 30 years. We have three kids, and my daughter, doyen, is a physician in the UK and is now planning on going into law, and so she has been very I'm very fortunate. She has been asking Mom what should I do? And one of the things I said to her. I said, first and foremost, I actually think I want you to meet Grant and I want you to meet him. And please this is not to promote you in any shape or form. I said to her I want you to meet him because what he will help you do is he will take a look at what it is that you're doing overall and give you a perspective and just pull out all those things that are in there already. They're already there. It's not as if he's going to come up with some magic for you, but he will help you understand how to position yourself, how to brand yourself and how to really focus on your strengths. So that's one of the things that I actually said to her, one of the things that I say in general, and not just to her but also to my sons and to all the emerging leaders that are out there.

Speaker 2:

I always say, right now, I say you need to focus on having a growth mindset, you need to continuously grow, you need to continuously grow, you need to continuously learn, you need to continuously say what is it that I can do to make things better. The other thing that my kids will tell you and even right now I do new leaders, orientation for the organization and I share the leadership acronym because I tell them as a leader, you want to help shape where you are. You want to make sure that where you are will be better off because you were there, better off because you were there. And then the third thing that I say to folks because my kids are all in healthcare and I tend to do with a lot of folks in healthcare but even if you think about business, we're at a crossroads in which way we look at it. We're at a crossroads in healthcare, we're at a crossroads in business.

Speaker 2:

And so one of the things I tell young emerging leaders is that this is a unique time in healthcare, in business, to make a difference. And I just say guys, seize this opportunity with boldness, because there is no other time that I can think of than the present to really make a difference and to put your footprint on the whole landscape of health care and of business. So that's what I tell her and that's what I tell emerging leaders emerging leaders, but I also tell that to seasoned leaders, including myself, so that I keep remembering that, as I tell others this, that I also embody it as well on an ongoing and a continued basis.

Speaker 1:

Well said, well stated. I can hear Dorian already over there just clapping.

Speaker 2:

Like that's my mom.

Speaker 1:

This is wonderful. This has been great. Love the interview with you. Thank you for taking the time to share your story with such grace. It's been wonderful. And before I let you go, they've got to know how did they get in contact with you? Where is she at? How can I send her an email? How can I get a hold of one of her books? I'm sure people are asking that right now.

Speaker 2:

Well, I would say people can get a hold of me on LinkedIn. I do my best to respond to people on LinkedIn, so I will be privileged and honored to be in touch with anybody on LinkedIn. My books are on Amazon, but I don't mind having conversations with people to help bring what I say. It's one thing to read a book, it's another thing to bring it to life. So I definitely so people who listen to this podcast if they want, you know, for me to just have a conversation, a brief conversation, with them about it. I look forward to that as well.

Speaker 1:

That is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I want to encourage your entire audience, your entire family, to tune in to all the episodes of Follow the Brand that is at the number five. That's star S-T-A-R-B-D-M. B for brand, d for development, infomasterscom. I want to thank you so much again for being on the show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, grant. It's been a pleasure, it's been a privilege working with you and look forward to our ongoing collaborations. Thank you, absolutely, absolutely. Take care you.