Page 36 - Healthcare Heroes 2025

HealthcareHEROES
A P R O G R A M O F B U S I N E S S W E S T & H E A L T H C A R E N E W S
“They’re
Raftopoulos >>Continued from page H34
learning a new
skill set, and
it takes time
to acquire it
and make it
a habit; you
need a lot of
coaching over
a long period
of time.”
several doctors; Healthcare Provider, for all the reasons listed
above; and even Collaboration in Healthcare because that one
word effectively describes how he works with patients, out of
necessity, for them to achieve the results they desire.
But we’ll focus on administration because of the way he
has grown this program and made it a model of sorts that
continues to attract physicians.
Our story begins in Greece, where, early on, Raftopoulos
developed an affinity for challenge and eventually went to
medical school while setting his sights on coming to the U.S.
to be a surgeon. Upon graduating, he sent 450 hand-typed
letters, by his count, to hospitals in this country seeking
interviews.
He got three responses, one from a hospital in Chicago,
where he ultimately landed, eventually working with one of
the pioneers in bariatric surgery.
The surgery fascinated him. But he was more drawn to the
physician’s personal approach to his work, a philosophy that
he emulated and has taken with him to a fellowship at the
University of Pittsburgh and eventually to his role as director
of the Bariatric Surgery Program at Sant Francis Hospital and
Medical Center in Hartford, Conn., then back to Greece for
a short time, and then to Holyoke for the start of its Weight
Management Program in September 2015.
Upon coming to this country in 2002, Raftopoulos quickly
noted that it had a weight problem.
“It was striking, for someone who hadn’t been here
before,” he said, adding that, unfortunately, over the
years, this weight problem has become more of a global
phenomenon.
And he has essentially dedicated his life to addressing it —
or at least helping those who come to him because they want
to do something to get their life back.
He spends two days a week in surgery, with the most
common procedure being a gastrectomy, whereby part of the
stomach — 60% to 70% on average — is removed to reduce
stomach capacity and promote weight loss.
“It reduces the appetite and the hunger and makes
the patient feel full faster with less food,” he explained.
“Obviously, that by itself is not enough to be successful, but
it gives them the tools, the assistance to be motivated to
change their habits and work with me.”
After surgery, he said, the simple goal is to keep
patients motivated, focused on short- and long-term goals,
communicating, and on the path they started down because
they couldn’t manage their weight themselves.
And to the extent possible, he motivates his patients to set
the bar high when it comes to what is considered ‘success.’
“Sometimes, they’ll say ‘any weight loss is great,’” he told
BusinessWest. “And I’ll say, ‘wait a minute, it’s not great.’ I tell
them that, if they’re going to go under the knife and under
anesthesia for the sole reason to lose weight, they need to
do awesome, and awesome, to me, means getting back to a
normal weight.”
Achievements on a Grand Scale
During his career, Raftopoulos has helped more than 10,000
patients on their weight-loss journey, bringing his personal
brand of care to each case with that aforementioned focus on
communication, something that, in many cases, needs to be
taught.
“Learning how to communicate — that’s one of the biggest
issues they face,” he said of his patients. “They need to be
confident in conveying the difficulties and learning to work
together with me to solve them, rather than try to figure it
out themselves, as they have been used to in the system,
and then they end up not doing the right thing.
“The first thing they need to learn is how to communicate,
and how to communicate effectively,” he went on.
“And when I say ‘effectively,’ I mean not being afraid to
communicate if they’ve had a bad week or they’ve gained
weight, because I tell them the opportunity is still there from
the good weeks and the bad weeks. I’m not the police; I’m
not going to give them a ticket, and sometimes I have to tell
them that, because they think, if they tell me something bad,
that I’m going to get upset or they’re going to feel ashamed.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” he continued. “As long as you
communicate and we discuss the mistakes, you learn from
them. The bigger mistake is not to communicate, because it’s
very difficult, without guidance, to understand why you’re
making mistakes and, more importantly, how to correct them
and not repeat them.”
This communication begins before surgery, and it continues
every day after surgery for some time, and then it becomes
weekly, he went on, adding that his research has informed
him that more intensive follow-up for a longer period of time
is a key ingredient in a patient achieving long-term success.
“They’re learning a new skill set, and it takes time to
acquire it and make it a habit; you need a lot of coaching over
a long period of time,” he said. When asked how long this
coaching goes on, he added simply, “forever.”
Elaborating, he said that, over time, the patient will achieve
a measure of independence, with the communication coming
weekly, monthly, or over a few months, but it continues
because weight management is a lifelong assignment.
And while carrying out that assignment, he said, it’s
important for patients to have goals, short and long term,
as well as milestones to reach and encouragement to reach
them.
“You have to set goals for them, like losing three pounds
every week,” he said, adding that he will remind them of this.
“And then, I give them longer-term goals; I’ll remind them,
‘you’re 30 pounds from not being obese, that’s a milestone.’
Or ‘you’re 60 pounds from not being overweight.’ I find
that giving them milestones motivates them to stay in the
program, to push harder, and to accomplish the task.
“People will say, ‘oh, my pants feel loose, I feel great, I
made another hole on my belt,’” he went on. “I’ll say, ‘that’s
great, but that’s not the goal; the goal is to get to a normal
weight.’”
Raftopoulos said many factors go into whether a patient
will be successful on his or her weight loss journey, but
perhaps the most important are a willingness to listen,
communicate, learn from mistakes, fully understand that they
need help to do this, and ask for help when it’s needed.
“Some people don’t know what to do, and they have
difficulty doing it,” he explained. “They have an opinion
about things, and sometimes we’ll have an argument. I’ll say,
‘you have an opinion, you’re entitled to have an opinion,
everyone has an opinion ... but you came to us because you
couldn’t lose weight or you gained weight, so that means that
whatever opinion you had, it wasn’t very successful; maybe
you should listen to me and do things differently.’”
These comments help convey that, while research,
innovation, and evidence-based practice is at the foundation
of his work, compassion and dedication to patients truly set
him apart and enable his patients to achieve positive results
at rates considerably higher than the national averages.
And they also help convey why Raftopoulos is now, and has
always been, a Healthcare Hero. BW
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