Page 51 - Healthcare News Sep/Oct 2022

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Pirraglia
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clinical teams — so that we can grow and learn in order to authentically build trust and engagement.”
That’s not to say the group couldn’t have done some things differently, Pirraglia said. “It’s difficult because we’re not in a setting where these entities would necessarily be meeting and collaborating. So there was probably more we could have done that was broader and more in concert.
“But I feel confident that, if another crisis came, we could convene another group, or at least
use the methodology we used,” he continued. “Certainly, the community outreach and patient-
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Shared Mindset
One of the goals of invitational management
is to make all members of a team feel the same way, Paglia explained, adding that he strives
to accomplish such sentiment through active listening, getting employees involved, inspiring them to assume a sense of ownership in the operation, and making sure those in every position know they have an active role in the success of the company.
“I picked up quickly a long time ago that when
oriented piece of it worked really well, and we’d probably carry that forward if we had another crisis. It really was, in my mind, highly effective.”
Mission Accomplished
As noted earlier, Pirraglia has always taken a mission-based approach to care.
“What I mean by that is we take care of a traditionally underserved population with a lot
of social challenges in their life,” he said. “These are patients who have difficulty with travel, with food, with shelter, with a lot of other issues in their lives. So just being able to deliver care is more challenging because the patients oftentimes have these other contexts to deal with. Our work has been to try to deliver the best care we can to
someone is passionate about what they’re doing, they have their own internal motivation to be successful,” he said, adding that one of the goals for him and other leaders is to match this passion with career opportunities that will enable those individuals — and the company — to grow.
While doing all that, he also likes to bring fun into the equation. In fact, it’s a big part of the success formula.
“We plan for fun,” he said, adding that an ‘engagement committee’ he established has launched several initiatives that team members can take part in together, from a Halloween party
our patients despite some of the challenges they face.”
Throw in a pandemic, and ... well, you can see why we consider the effort heroic, even though Pirraglia doesn’t consider himself a hero.
“It was a really gratifying experience to have people totally on point, using their expertise in trying to figure out this really scary problem,” he said. “We learned that you can be nimble, you can be collaborative, you can tackle a really complex problem. And when you’re working on a group like this and the communication is good, the sense of mission is good, and there’s clarity about where we’re going with it, great things can happen.” n
to a recent barbecue and cornhole tournament; from an ice-cream social to fitness challenges.
The cornhole event and ‘mismatch day,’ where employees wear outfits that do not match, don’t explain why Paglia is an effective leader — or a Healthcare Hero for 2022 in the Administrator category.
But they are part of the explanation.
There are, in fact, many parts to this equation, but the result is an engaging administrator who has taken the lead at MiraVista — in every sense of that phrase. n
Paglia
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