Meet acting Region II Health Care Executive Bayode Omosaiye, who was recently appointed at California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS).
What drew you to a role with CCHCS?
I would answer the question by what drew me to healthcare as an industry and then to CCHCS.
In terms of health care, I am driven by the many conversations with my mother, a retired nurse. As a child I would wait up to speak to her after her night shift listening to nursing challenges. Everything from staffing, calling doctors at 2 a.m. with abnormal lab results, and working clinically challenging patients through the Admit Discharge and Transfer processes. So began the journey to do my part to address/solve these issues in hospital systems, outpatient clinics in Florida, North Carolina, Hawaii, and now California.
For CCCHCS, after completing a project as the CEO of a three hospital system in Maui and transitioning the facilities to Kaiser Permanente, CCHCS contacted me about a CEO position. y
After discussing with a colleague at CCHCS and some research, I saw the similarities in providing healthcare services to patients in our facilities and the work done working for a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC). In FQHCs, we operated on a strict budget, providing healthcare services to the homeless and families with incomes 200% of HHS Poverty Guidelines.
We developed programs, wrote grants, and secured managed care contracts for this population, ensuring we met set goals for clinical outcomes like diabetes, colon cancer, etc. Think of it as CCHCS population health management meetings for zip codes, outside the prison setting.
Outreach meetings and clinic appointments were done by securing the support of community leaders, pastors, and hospitals. In CCHCS, we can provide patient education and develop relationships. In FQHCs, homeless patients would stop their course of treatment or be a no show for a follow up visit.
I also had the opportunity, prior to Hawaii, to work as a Regional Manager over two for-profit forensic psych facilities in addition to the years of working as a CEO/COO of hospitals. The experience has translated well to CCHCS and helped connect to patients.
Finally, when you consider the demographics of our patients in CCHCS, I am a 50 year old African American. There is something about holding your son on his first birthday while receiving your cancer screening results. That fuels the additional drive or push to ensure our patients get the care needed. I don’t think we have enough time to discuss the experience with COVID and how being born in Tuskegee, Alabama, helped with connecting with patients. Perhaps another time.
Who have you looked up to in your professional aspirations?
There are many, but to name a few:
- Tundun Omosaiye RN, Nurse Educator/Administrator headlined campaign in Lagos Nigeria for the Ministry of Health called Medications For All by the year 2000. Put 4 of us through college on an RN salary. We once worked together to donate equipment to rural hospitals in Nigeria.
- Bernard Tyson, former CEO of Kaiser Permanente. He passed away but gave me a lot of advice on culturally proficient healthcare. This is now called Health Equity. He put me at ease when we met in 2017 and he was a Lil Wayne fan.
- Stephen Royal, a former Division President. He taught me emotional intelligence, humility and as leaders we need to be vulnerable. He always said there was no such thing as “good” or “bad” news. Leaders just receive news.
- Ronald Lavater, CEO International Hospital Federation
- Joseph T. Clancy – gave me my first Hospital COO position and left me to find my way as a leader.
- Ray Diallo
- Marshall Goldsmith
- Barack Obama
- Dr. Gillian Hotz, Miller School of Medicine
- Dr. Joseph Bick, CCHCS
- Deputy Directors in CCHCS that have gone above and beyond to orient new CEOs
What advice would you give to those seeking to challenge themselves professionally and/or seek leadership roles?
- Have a growth/ development plan
- Find a mentor who shares your values
- Empathy
- Emotional Intelligence and Social Awareness
- Transpose the letters in the word NO to ON – get used to being rejected, it will happen.
- Focus on outcomes, results
- Be a member of a professional organization to stay up to date on industry trends
- Pay it forward – a leader develops other leaders
- Study history
- Study other cultures
Fun Facts about acting Regional Health Care Executive Bayode Omosaiye
- I love kids! One of my favorite things to do is play with my 13 month old. Children are a blessing and I would love to have more.
- Currently working on my certification to be a Jiu Jitsu Instructor.
- I’m a bit of a music geek.
- Avid reader. Don’t leave a book around me because I’ll take it.
- Huge comedy fan, from Will Ferrell to Kevin Hart.