Meet the Team: Grant Diggles

January 7, 2020 by Jayme Barnes

Throughout the next several weeks we will be introducing you to the professionals that make up the Health Professionals Alliance (HPA) team. Being a newcomer to the team, these interviews have been fun for me; allowing me insight that is often missed in day-to-day interactions. What I can tell you, and I’m sure you will come to learn in these interviews, is that the people that make up this team are very hardworking, driven, and kind.

This week we are featuring Grant Diggles. Grant is the President of the Physicians Group Alliance (PGA), a division of HPA focused on the physician community. Typically, he is the first face physicians see when discussing the HPA model. When Grant is not flying around the country to present the HPA message, he is working with physicians to identify value-based opportunities in the market to bring the network additional services, companies, and initiatives to help them grow their practice, save money, and ensure their independence.

Grant was one of the first individuals I met with when joining the HPA team. As a non-finance person, one of the things that really struck me about Grant is how patient he is; Grant took the time to sit down and explain concepts to me in a way I truly understood. As you will learn in the interview below, Grant is the definition of ambitious, always on the move, and truly has a passion for helping others succeed.

Tell me about your background prior to joining HPA

My formal education is based in media, marketing, and graphic design. I used this degree to start my first company, Cavanagh Media Group, at the age of 24.

I was also employed for a short time as a pastor at New Life Foursquare church in Canby, Oregon. There I served as the lead worship pastor. It was during this time that I met my wife of more than 20 years. Suffice it to say, this was unarguably the best decision I ever made. Aside from meeting the love of my life, this was a pivotal season that helped to build my foundations in leadership and relationship management. The skills I learned during this time have served me every day of my life and cannot be emphasized enough as it pertains to my ongoing development.

Since then I have moved on to serve as the CEO of Outpatient Anesthesia Services, an anesthesia services company based out of Portland, OR, and the CEO of North Peak Investments, a real estate investment firm focused on single-family, multi-family, and commercial properties.

What led you to join the HPA team?

Since I was already entrenched in the medical vertical via Outpatient Anesthesia services, the decision to work with HPA was an easy choice. I’ve had the privilege of working with many physicians in a variety of specialties, with many of them becoming close personal friends. Because of the relationships I’ve developed in the healthcare industry I’ve become keenly aware of the challenges the physician community faces. The grind and volume that many of my colleagues endure year-to-year is nothing short of amazing. Their desire to help patients has become increasingly frustrating given the negative fluctuations in reimbursement and imposed requirements from a regulatory standpoint. I saw HPA as an incredible value proposition to help physicians remain independent and position them to improve their practice dynamics and patient care.

How did your upbringing and parents influence your career?

My parent’s personalities presented a healthy balance of a well-rounded upbringing. My mother had entrepreneurial and “risk-taker” personality traits, a true extrovert. My father was frugal, modest, and a disciplined planner who enjoyed his personal time. Our family of five was a quintessential middle class suburban lifestyle. Both of my parents invested in me from their unique perspectives on life; my father taught me about finance, hard work, and treating others with fairness and integrity, while my mother taught me how to have fun, take chances in life, and to think bigger than everyone else. Throughout my childhood I put both of their influences to practice as I became who I am today.

How would your friends, coworkers, and family describe you?

Most of my friends and family would likely describe me as a joker in social situations, with many of them being able to recall specific experiences with me. With my entrepreneur leanings, I become obsessed with new ideas, new skills, and new business that interests me. My closes friends tend to give me eye rolls when I’ve discovered a new hobby. I become hyper-focused during these seasons; learning as much as I can before I feel that I’ve reliably achieved what would be considered a high level of understanding and capability – I treat my relationships similarly. My closest friends would describe me as loyal, honest, and open about who I am. While I meet a large variety of people in my goings-on, I gravitate towards those who reciprocate those same relational affinities as I do. While my close circle of friends is relatively small, those relationships are deep, meaningful, and long-term.

What are you most passionate about when it comes to working with clients?

Relationships and solving problems; these are two elements I teach my kids when it comes to being successful. If you can solve your own and others problems, and you are great at building relationships, you can be as successful as you want. In my anesthesia company these two elements are central to our culture; because I am so passionate about both I have been known to terminate or pass on potential contracts simply because one of these two elements are weak. HPA was an easy choice in that the core focus of HPA is to solve problems for the physician and dental communities on a national level. With all of the travel I get to enjoy, I have the opportunity to form great relationships across the country with like-minded people.