Meet Kiame Mahaniah of Lynn Community Health Center

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kiame Mahaniah.

Kiame, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Kinshasa, the biggest city in the Congo with frequent visits to my father’s hometown of Luozi, in a rural part of country. Because of my American mother, I also spent some summers in Chicago. From an early age, the maddening nature of disparities was quite clear to me. The biggest choice you as an individual can make in determining your destiny in life was clearly choosing which parents you were born to. From that point on, it was clear that I would dedicate my life to fighting disparities.

Luckily enough, Haverford College, a Quaker liberal arts college outside Philadelphia, provided me with a full ride. Four years later, the National Health Service Corps provided me a scholarship to medical school, as well as a stipend to live on. By the time residency was over, I was married, had a toddler son and the civil war that had started during my junior year in college was barely winding down. Adult life had come with a roar, and the US seemed to be the chosen track. Not being able to use my skills in a third world country, I opted to work in the health care institutions most tied to fight against health disparities: community health centers.

We ended up in Boston for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it is the North American city with the shortest flight time to Germany, my wife Katrin’s home country and where her whole family still lives. I ended up in Lynn because of my two great clinical loves: mentoring and helping establish programs to fight the opioid epidemic. The Lynn CHC has a majority of young, idealist and professionally hungry clinicians, in addition to the close relationship with the Tufts University School of Medicine. Additionally, it is likely one of the nation’s leaders in providing comprehensive, outpatient based care for people in recovery. To top it all off, the population is majority immigrant, with those life experience I readily relate to.

I love my job as a physician leader, despite the chronic shortage of resources we suffer from as an institution dedicated to serving the most discarded of our fellow human beings. My professional role in providing care for patients in various stages of recovery is deeply spiritual. That I share this bond within an awesome team only serves to increase its meaning in my life. Being a leader allows me to help keep the focus of the institution and its partners on the patients who need us most.

Lynn is a great city, with an amazing diversity of food options, a fascinating history, a beautiful series of beaches and less than 20 minutes away by commuter rail from North Station. The health center enjoys a close partnership with a world class hospital in the Partners owned North Shore Medical Center and with the largest remaining employer in Lynn, GE aviation. There is a great feeling of hope, of better days around the corner and I enjoy coming to work every day, knowing that I am doing my part in helping people in Lynn, both patients and employees, achieve their dreams.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Switching from studying and living in French to English was certainly a difficult transition. I went from being a superlative student to an above average one, a big blow to my ego. Although the single most difficult aspect was learning the American sense of humor. Most of my colleagues and certainly my teenage kids would argue that I never really mastered that part.

Entering a shotgun marriage through a surprise pregnancy with a fellow medical student (we must not have covered contraception by that point!) was certainly an unexpected wrench in my mid-twenties. On the other hand, we are now the proud, relatively young parents of Kieto, an accomplished 19 year old who is finishing his self-designed travelling gap year between high school and college in Europe and Laura, a 15 year old rising sophomore at Phillips Andover. They are both incredibly bright and thoughtful, actively figuring out how to be responsible citizens.

Being a black male in the US comes with its series of obstacles, some with obvious costs and others more hidden. It is a constant challenge not to live in paranoid fear, and to believe in my talents. Choosing which of your painful lessons to teach your idealistic children is a painfully murky inner discussion.

Leadership in health care, in a time of profound change, is a great struggle, especially in these days as we are living what is potentially the deepest retreat from the promises of the Great Society.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Lynn Community Health Center story. Tell us more about the business.
Lynn Community Health Center is a federally qualified health center. We provide comprehensive primary and behavioral care for 40 thousand of Lynn’s population, about half the city. We are present in 13 of the schools, concentrating on providing mental health care to students. Over 90% of our patients live at 200% of the poverty line or below. We see our patients in 31 languages, with the big five being English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Khmer.

We are set part by our integration of primary and behavioral care: LCHC employs more therapists than it does medical clinicians. Every team is functionally and physically integrated.

Over the past three years, we have embraced Lean improvement methodology, through our partnership with the GE foundation and the Lean Enterprise Institute. This is essentially the application of the Toyota Production Systems to the health care setting. Overall, health care in the US has not provided great value for the money, and it is clear that through structured improvement, LCHC can be quite a different and efficient place in which to receive care.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I am extremely grateful for the accident of my birth to educated, dedicated and caring parents, who were able to offer their children wonderful options.

I am extremely grateful for an amazing wife and her wonderful family. Katrin and I were married within 6 months of our first date, but I don’t think I could have chosen a better mother and life partner.

I benefitted greatly from mentors throughout my adolescence and my adult life, adults who nurtured me and my interests. Through soccer, scouts, music, school, church… The greatest stroke of luck was likely showing up for my college job in the bindery (repairing library books) and on the first day meeting Reverend Pollard who had met exactly one person from the Congo 20 years prior while looking for someone to teach basic African history in Sunday School: my father. Rev. Pollard became my greatest fan and backer, helping me navigate issues of racial identity and racial politics.

My residency class was amazing, and formed the backbone of my survival during those hard years. The faculty was incredibly supportive of me, particularly the residency director at the time, Dr. Middleton.

Throughout my years, I have been blessed with wonderful friendships that have created my own circle of trust, my community of belonging.

Contact Info:

• Address: Lynn Community Health Center
  269 Union Street
  Lynn, MA 01901
• Website: lchc.org
• Phone: (781) 581‑3900
• Email: http://www.lchcnet.org/contact
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LynnCHC
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LynnCHC1

Image Credit:
Cindy Steiger-Wilson

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