Page 53 - Healthcare News Sep/Oct 2022

outlets, all with the goal of creating a better- informed community.
“If people are educated, they can take care of their health better,” he said, adding that such efforts took on greater importance during the height of the pandemic, when the public had more questions — and needed more answers — and trust was a huge factor.
“We had a lot of COVID issues to contend
with, but we also had to build up trust in the community,” he said, “because a lot of people were concerned about the ways people were contracting COVID, how they would protect themselves, the vaccines ... there were many things we had to educate people on, and we did a lot of outreach for that.”
HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Shukla
Continued from page A30
ERing on the Side of Caution
Overall, Shukla, as chief of the ER, assumes a role that blends medicine with administration, and, with his background and MBA training, he can bring a unique perspective to the table.
“Not many physicians go back and get a degree like an MBA; most of us go to school for a very long time as physicians, so not a lot of us go back,” he explained, adding that he enjoys both sides of the equation — business and especially medicine.
“It’s important for me to be well-rounded and understand how things are run,” he said, adding that he took a marketing class in 10th grade and since then has always been fascinated by business and management. “I really enjoy business, and so there’s the budget/financial aspect that I really like in administration, because I feel I can look at spreadsheets and Excel sheets in a different way than I did a few years ago before I earned my
cure cancer, and I find that sensible,” Glynn noted. “After all, we don’t cure diabetes, we don’t cure heart disease, and we won’t cure cancer.”
But there will be new advancements, new and better ways of screening, preventing, and treating the emperor of all maladies, he said, adding that, while his career is winding toward its conclusion, the oncologists who follow him will have new, previously unimagined tools with which to carry on the fight.
And they can certainly draw inspiration from
MBA.
“I understand the budget and the finances a lot
more than I used to,” he went on, “and also how
I can cut costs and improve efficiency in the ER, whether it’s flow in the ER or how I can reduce the cost of staffing or increase staffing to help show a return on investment.”
Going all the way back to when he was volunteering at the University of Missouri Hospital as a junior-high student, Sunny Shukla has known that he was destined to be in a profession — and a place — where he could help people.
That profession turned out to be healthcare, and the place is the ER, or the safety net, as he called it, which is now more his home.
For his efforts to continually improve that safety net, make it stronger, more welcoming, more comfortable, and better able to serve all those who come through its doors, Shukla is certainly an emerging leader, and truly a Healthcare Hero. n
him.
Glynn may not have written the definitive
biography of cancer, but he has authored a remarkable career, one marked by treating patients with respect and dignity, handling the heavy burden of their care with grace and humility, and providing that critical blend of science and humanity.
And that makes him more of than worthy of the title Healthcare Hero. n
Glynn
Continued from page A22
phone calls to make sure patients are heard, and staying with them often well beyond the end of treatment, regardless of outcome.
The Plot Thickens
Returning once again to the photo on wall, Glynn said he believes the best message of that book is the promise of the future.
“He [Mukherjee] says that we probably won’t
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