Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
The Healthy Wealthy and Wise Podcast, with Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD is a monthly podcast that focuses on personal growth and development by exploring a range of topics related to mental and physical health, personal wealth, leadership, and interpersonal relationships. Dr. Choctaw draws on his 75yrs experience and 50 plus years of surgical practice since graduating from Yale University School of Medicine.
Each month, we strive to provide our listeners with mental, physical, and spiritual strength by giving actionable advice, tips, guidance, and information to help them achieve their own personal, professional, and spiritual goals. We consider the health of the mind, body, and spirit paramount as a single unit that provides a cumulative strength greater than the individual parts, to strengthen the whole person.
We appreciate the natural differences in need between men, women, adults, and children. We recognize that the power to be happy is within each of us and under our control. We embrace technology and identify how it is applicable to our daily success. We address the entire human experiences from generation z to the baby boomers.
We’re passionate about the total person, and helping our listeners build and lead a full, well-rounded and happy life. So, tune in every month for an inspiring, encouraging, and informative podcast!
Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
Lorena's Journey to Public Service
Get ready to be inspired as we sit down for a warm and insightful conversation with our special guest, Mrs. Lorena Choctaw. Lorena brings us a powerful account from her early days in Guatemala City, born to her Christian parents who instilled in her a deep faith and a strong commitment to service. Her father, a pastor, and mother, a surgical nurse, laid the groundwork for her future leadership. She provides a fresh perspective on the role of early childhood education and its life-altering impact. Lorena's story is a testament to the power of faith, family, and service in shaping a life of purpose and leadership.
In the second half of our discussion, we switch gears to a profound narrative of service and philanthropy. Loretta, a dedicated community volunteer, opens up about her transformative journey. She shares with us the incredible impact her involvement in community service has had, not just on the people she's helped, but also on her own growth. From the exceptional success of their food bank to the launch of a scholarship program addressing student homelessness, Loretta's story paints a vivid picture of the immense rewards of community service. Tune in to hear these awe-inspiring tales of service, faith, and leadership.
The Host, Dr. William Choctaw; MD, JD, is a healthcare leadership expert, possessing a Medical Doctorate from the Yale University School of Medicine, and a Jurist Doctorate from Western University. Over a span of 50 years practicing medicine, he has served as Chief of Staff, Chief of Surgery, and as a member of the medical executive committee at Citrus Valley Medical Center over a 10 year period. Also, while practicing at Citrus Valley Medical Center, he served as Chief Transformation Officer, (developed a Robust Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma program). Dr. Choctaw lectures nationally and internationally on medical leadership issues for hospital staffs, executives, and managers. He served as a Physician Surveyor on the Joint Commission. He's the author of 2 books, "Medical Malpractice: A Physician's Guide to the Law" and "Transforming the Patient Experience: A New Paradigm for Hospital and Physician Leadership, published by the Springer Publishing Co. He’s the President of Choctaw Medical Group, Inc., a clinical practice and medical legal consulting firm for medical staff executives, physician leaders, and hospitals.
Welcome to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William T Choctaw, mdjd, where the doctor helps you unlock your full potential by equipping you with tools and knowledge in the areas of health, wealth and wisdom anchored in his experience as a business executive, a physician surveyor for the Joint Commission, a former mayor and over 50 years of experience as a general surgeon. You've got questions, he's got answers, so let's get started. Here's Dr William T Choctaw, mdjd.
Speaker 2:Good morning. I'm Dr William T Choctaw and I welcome you to our Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast. We have a very special guest today. Our guest today for our podcast is Mrs Lorena Choctaw. That's right, you heard that correctly. She is my better half and I am delighted to have her to share with you some of her thoughts and some of her impressions and experiences on leadership. So welcome, lorena.
Speaker 3:Thank you Good morning.
Speaker 2:Good morning. So let me ask you this what would you say are if someone were to ask you to tell your story, how would you tell your story?
Speaker 3:Well, my story started as I was born in Guatemala City in Central America, to Christian parents. My father was a pastor of a Baptist church, and so I grew up attending church all the time. So my faith grew up as stronger and stronger as I grew up and got older. My introduction to service was probably by observing them serving others all the time. My dad, as a pastor, was constantly being sought by members of the church. They would come and share their needs with him and he would try to help them as much as he could, and my mother, as a surgical registrar nurse, was constantly being asked to go to their homes and try to provide medication and treatment to the sick. Members of the church and others from the towns Did you have any brothers or sisters?
Speaker 3:I have a brother. He is four years older than me.
Speaker 2:So you were the baby.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:You were the baby.
Speaker 3:I was the baby. I was the baby, yes, and for that reason my parents were very careful where I was going and what I was learning. They were very dedicated to make sure that I learned about Jesus Christ as my savior and that I learned different ways to help others and to serve others. I remember that my mom was very good at teaching me how to read and write as I was very little, so when the time came for me to go to kindergarten, she took me to the school and left me there, with the understanding that at the end of the school day she was going to come back and pick me up. Well, after an hour or so, I decided that that was not what I wanted in school, because all we were doing was playing. So I grabbed my lunch bell on my sweater and left and went home. And I walked back home. Now imagine the look in my mom's face when I knock at the door and she opened the front door and here I am, back from school.
Speaker 3:And he asked oh, I must have been six, five, six years old and when she asked what was I doing there, I just told her we're not learning anything, we are just playing and I want to learn how to read and write. So that decided right then that I was I'm not going to go to kindergarten. And by the time I was ready to be registered on the first grade, I was too advanced for that grade because, again, my mom had been teaching me at home. So I was advanced to the second grade, and that went on until I graduated from college. I was always a year early from my classmates. So that's how my life has started.
Speaker 2:Which is a good point, because it shows that, as a parent, you can never start too early teaching your kids basic reading and writing, et cetera, et cetera. That children will learn whatever you teach them, whenever you teach it to them.
Speaker 3:Right, right, and she was very good, she was patient and she would make it fun, and I think that that's how it was easier for me to learn, and I was eager to learn how to read and write. So that's how it started.
Speaker 2:Tell me about when you say read and write. Were you reading and writing Spanish? Only Were you reading and writing Spanish and English. How did all that come about?
Speaker 3:No, my introduction to English came later on in life, probably at junior high or high school. My father was the one that introduced me to English. He loved the language, he always used to travel a lot and he came to the United States a couple of times and he fell in love with the language and he studied it and learned it and it was a goal of his that I was going to learn how to speak English. And so whenever he was always busy, but whenever he would have a couple of minutes, I would go to his office and he would sit me in front of his desk and he would start teaching me words first and he would have me repeat them over and over and over, and it was never a hard thing to do or a homework or a fear. He made it so easy for me to feel comfortable with the language. And as we went along then we got into phrases and sentences and then like conversations, and he was always telling me that one day I needed to come to the United States.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:That, yes, that he wanted me to come to the United States to live, that that was my future, and that's why he was so adamant in teaching me the language. Interesting Interesting.
Speaker 2:So he started very early looking at your path down the road and again, those, those who are blessed with both mom and dad. That's what you want, you know, because it really does make a difference. It's not, it's not lost, it's not forgotten that that becomes a part of the children as they grow up. But what would you say are some of the, some of the things that you've learned in life, your life lessons, that sort of guide you you mentioned about religion and how your mom, your dad being a pastor and your mom being active in the church, in addition to being a medical professional, a nurse. But what are some other things that you learn, either in Guatemala or the United States, or both?
Speaker 3:I learned that serving is a privilege.
Speaker 3:I used to see my mom and dad serve a lot and and I used to tell him don't you get tired of it. You know why are people always asking you to do things? And their response will always be it is my privilege, I enjoy doing it, and they saw it as a blessing to be able to serve others. So I learned that at a very early age and I grew up understanding that that we were all here to to serve those in need. So it was not a strange thing for me. When later on in life I was given the opportunity to to serve and it was as it felt like a second nature to me, it was not a strange thing.
Speaker 2:So are there other ways that you have served?
Speaker 3:I got blessed me when I came to the United States to find immediate work, first as a tax collector up north in Modesto, and I was a a collector of taxes and I always felt that that it was a service that we were providing to the community for them to have a place where they could come and pay their bills without having to travel long distances.
Speaker 3:And later on I had the opportunity to work for local hospitals here in the Los Angeles area and my job was to service the physicians on the staff of the two hospitals that I was in charge of in my job and helping them.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I said you were the director of the medical staff office for the two Correct Correct, and some of my duties were to make sure that the physicians would have what they needed, that it was my responsibility to make sure that they had their license current so that they wouldn't run into problems while treating patients.
Speaker 3:I was in charge of making sure that they would follow the rules and rights, and any other service that they needed we provided them at the office that I was the director of. So through my whole life I have had the opportunity to serve.
Speaker 2:Yes, I can imagine, and I should add a note here I was one of those physicians because I one of the ways that Lorraine and I met was at the hospital. The medical self-office is unique for physicians. Many times we physician particularly those in private practice may not think much of hospital administration that many times there's always a little tension there, but not the medical self-office, even though the medical self-office was employed by the hospital. But it was that bridge between the hospital and the practicing physicians. We relied on individuals like yourself and in your office to help us to make sure that we follow the rules, that we didn't run out of time and renewed our license on time A lot of the basic stuff that we tend to ignore as physicians. But without that it would have been very difficult for us to do the things that we wanted to do. What other lessons have you learned other than service? Service started for you at a very young age.
Speaker 3:Yes, it did, it did.
Speaker 2:I can only remember, tell me about education, but what was the story?
Speaker 3:I was just about to say that as I grew up watching my mom practice medicine, I always felt the attraction to be involved in medicine, either as a nurse or a physician. But for some reason nursing did not attract me, but being a physician sounded more interesting and exciting.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:But since my parents could not afford to send the two of us, my brother and I, to school, my brother decided that he wanted to go into medicine also, so that made it more difficult for me to go. So I had to instead choose to go to business school because it was easier to go that route financially. But as it is, later in life I met a physician that I married to and I had the opportunity to work in his office and to be the administrator of a surgical medical office. So, as it is, life is a circle and you kind of come all the way around to where you started and at the end I was helping to treat patients and to write prescriptions in orders for treatments and surgeries and so on. So I got involved in medicine in a way.
Speaker 2:And, as a matter of fact, you're being very modest. One of the things that I'm a general surgeon and I had my own office, but there are many other general surgeons in our hospital and we decided as surgeons to form a group. We didn't merge completely, but we were an affiliate group. We would use that group to cover the emergency, because we took emergency calls on nights and weekends and holidays and so each of us would have some time off. We would form a group and Lorena actually was the manager of the group.
Speaker 2:There were seven of us and some of you who are old school can remember this we called ourselves the Magnificent Seven, and if you think physicians are difficult to manage, surgeons are the extreme of that. They're the extreme of difficult positions, and if you talk to anyone who works in a hospital, the docs that they have the difficult, the problems with, oftentimes tend to be surgeons. But so my point is that your ability to serve and to manage was extraordinary, because most people cannot manage one physician, let alone seven surgeons at the same time, and it worked. It worked for years and years and years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I also had the opportunity to establish my own business consulting business for medical offices. That was the time when the HIPAA rules came and everyone was nervous and anxious about being in compliance with the new rule and requirements from the state. And since I was well versed on it, that was an opportunity for me to do some consulting. I was traveling throughout the East San Gervio Valley, the offices and what I would do is I would do training, I would do an evaluation of their practice and at the end I would give my recommendations and observations so that they could improve and be in compliance with the ruling. So, as you see, throughout my life everything has been working for others and it's a pleasure for me.
Speaker 2:And also I heard that you actually did some medical missionary work in Mexico. Tell me about that.
Speaker 3:I did, I did. There was a group of physicians and volunteers that from the city wanted that would go across the border to Tecate, and I loved it because, since I was able to speak the language, it was easier for me to converse with the community members that came to receive medical care. I was able to translate for the physicians that couldn't communicate, so that was another way that God's blessing, and the fact that I could speak Spanish and English helped me to be of service during those trips.
Speaker 2:It's amazing not only that you started service very, very young, with your mom and dad teaching you based on what they were doing. You've done a variety of different types of service, whether it's working with a group of physicians, whether it's being in a caravan of 23rd people and driving across the border once a month to Tecate, mexico, to treat whoever showed up, and to have done that over 10 years or so. So I also hear that you actually got involved with food security, with the food bank, and that indeed, that presently you're the chief operating officer of Servants Arms Food Bank, which is one of the largest food banks in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County. Tell me how that came about and what was really involved with that.
Speaker 3:The way that happened was that my husband was invited to become a member of the board of directors of Servants Arms, which is a 501C3 nonprofit organization that started from St Stephen Baptist Church, and in order for them to be able to receive funding to sustain their food bank, they needed to have a separate organization that was not a religious organization and, as it happened, when they invited him, he told them that he would have to bring his wife with him. So I was an add-on and I became a member of the board of the board and you became the star of the board and I'm the add-on.
Speaker 3:But it has been a pleasure to be a member of the board. I was a year or so after I started to be a member. I was asked to be the secretary for the board in being responsible and taking the minutes of the meetings and doing all the office responsibilities, and I've been doing that for a couple of years. In 2019, following the resignation of the executive director, I was asked to halt the fort as we could find a new executive director. It's been four years now that I've been holding the fort and I can say that it's been a tremendous blessing for me, because the number and the variety of ways that you can serve it has no limits. It has opened doors for me to have a relationship with state officials that have seen the value of the work that we do for the community and they have dedicated themselves to be of financial support for us. One of them is Supervisor Jair de Solis. She has been the strongest and the more permanent supporter of our cause.
Speaker 3:We have a food bank that has done tremendous service for the East San Gierin Valley.
Speaker 3:This month we have a complete, full food distribution and during the week, for two hours, we provide vegetables and fruits and other items to the community. But it is unbelievable the excitement, the satisfaction, the happiness that that provides for me and as it is, we have been recognized by the Los Angeles regional food bank as one of the best food banks in the area. Very recently we were also recognized by Kaiser Permanente as one of their providers of nutritional food for their members. So God has continuously been blessing us and he allows us to grow and we're going to the point that the number of community members that come now has overpass 400 in number and we distribute food for three hours and we start from three to six and the community members to start coming at 930, 10 to wait for the distribution and they make it a social event, they make it a fellowship event and they sit around and they talk to each other and they never complain and it doesn't matter how the weather is.
Speaker 2:Some of the community members volunteer actually at the food bank.
Speaker 3:Some of them are starting to volunteer too because they see the work that we're doing and they want to be part of it. We have received certificates of appreciation from some of the members that come. We have a group of volunteers that are unbelievably wonderful. They're so faithful. They come every single time. We have lots of fun. We work a lot. Some of us work from 6 am to 6 pm, but we had never received a complaint from one of the volunteers. They're always looking forward to the next one, so it's been a tremendous blessing for us, especially for me.
Speaker 2:And with the food bank. One of the things I've been struck by is that not only do you and your organization's service arms provide food, but food security many times is associated with homes, housing security and education, and what I heard was that you actually give scholarships. Tell me about the scholarships.
Speaker 3:Service arms has a subdivision. It has an education committee that is in charge of putting together a scholarship program. That is, the scholarships are offered once a year, sometimes twice a year depending on the funds Remember, on C3, a nonprofit, so we don't have specific funds that come on a monthly basis. We depend on donations and contributions and grants that we obtain, and some of those funds are dedicated to the scholarships. We have been blessed with the opportunity to give three scholarships of $2,000 each almost every year and we try to give it to students from our local high schools and local colleges and because we have a relationship with the Hacienda La Puente School District and that's one of the ways that we contribute to their advancement and to make sure that those students that can afford it less get some financial support so that they can go ahead and continue with the college education.
Speaker 2:And I had heard that some of those students are actually homeless, that they don't have homes and in addition to food problems and that sort of thing that service arms organization helps with, that also has helped that in the past.
Speaker 3:That is correct.
Speaker 3:Last year they had the school district had close to 700 students, and these are students that are from elementary school, junior high and high school, and it's amazing to believe that at this time and age, we still have homeless students.
Speaker 3:Most of them live in garages, that the ones that are blessed, others living in cars, and some of them receive vouchers for few nights at motels so that they can have a roof of their heads, so that they can rest at least for one or two nights. This, the problem, is serious and that is one of the programs that we have been working with, with the board of supervisors, and making sure that they do do something, that they they have a program for homeless students. We are trying to get housing for those students, because the way that we see it is that this, this student, should be having to worry just on their studies and their performance at school, in advancing in school, and not having to worry about where their next meal is going to come or where they're going to spend the following night. So we will continue doing what we're doing to try to get more and more help for them, because it is it is something that it should not be happening in 2023.
Speaker 2:It's amazing to us because we think of food, but actually food is connected to housing, and housing is connected to to advancement and that sort of thing. Let me go back to your background. So you, you got your bachelors, you got your master's in business. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:I got my master's in business administration and commerce and commerce, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So how would you say some of your biggest lessons learned over your life? Starting back in Guatemala, when your parents were first introduced you to the whole idea of what service was all about, going through the years of college and in your time as as a tax collector, and then most of your time getting to where you're most comfortable, which is in health care. So what have been some of your biggest lessons learned?
Speaker 3:I think that I believe that the biggest lesson that I have learned in life is that, during the time that I have served, I always thought wrongfully so that I was helping others, when in reality they are the ones they help us, the ones that are providing for them. Because if we pay attention to it, at the end of the day a hard day of helping others you get your blessing. You go home exhausted. By the end you have this feeling of satisfaction of what you've done.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Absolutely. Loretta, I am so grateful for you sharing your time with us and helping us to understand the world of philanthropy, and helping us or being of service Let me just be specific of being of service. I think that's so important going forward. Any other parting comments you would like to leave with our audience before we let you go?
Speaker 3:If I can inspire someone, just go find something that you can do for someone in need.
Speaker 2:Well, I think just your story has already inspired some folks. I might add just the funding for service arms. Of course you get grants and that sort of thing, but you get a continuous source of small funds from individuals every month who just donate on a regular basis because they see the work that you and the food bank do and they want to be a part of that. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:That is correct? Yes, because, again, because we're a nonprofit, we can only be supported by individuals and or institutions that grant funds. That's how we survive. But it is amazing how God blesses, because every time that we are running down on funds, someone comes and in, in, in, donates, and funds are always coming and God continues to bless us Excellent.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Well, again, thank you so much for sharing some of your time and your words of wisdom with you. We hope you have a terrific day and God bless.
Speaker 3:Thank you. God bless you too.
Speaker 2:God bless you too. This is the end of our session for today. Thank you all for being with us and have a terrific day and remember be the change that you want to see in the world. Bye, bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William T Chokhtok, mdjd. Be sure to check out other great episodes covering areas of health, wealth and wisdom at THWPcom and, while you're there, be sure to check out the books, blogs and other literature in your preferred format. And don't forget to leave a review, subscribe, share and support the podcast that's at THWPcom. You've been listening to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William T Chokhtok, mdjd.
