Page 32 - BusinessWest 2023 Healthcare Heroes

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Innovation in Healthcare
Gabriel Mokwuah and Joel Brito
Patient Safety Associates, Holyoke Medical Center
attend and graduate from American International College, while also playing defensive end and linebacker — so well, in fact, that he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 11th round in 1992 (they only have seven rounds today).
He played in two exhibition games, was cut, tried to catch on with a few other teams, didn’t, and wound up working as a court officer at the Hampden County Jail and House of Correction, a job from which he retired several years ago.
All that adds up to just one of the intriguing backstories that can be told by those now working as patient safety associates (PSAs), or, in his case, patient safety coordinator, at Holyoke Medical Center (HMC).
Joel Brito has one of his own.
He was working for Hulmes Transportation, taking individuals to medical appointments and daily programs while also volunteering his time to help those with substance-abuse issues when he saw an ad posted on Indeed — Holyoke Medical Center was looking for patient safety associates.
“As soon as I saw it, I jumped on it, and here I am. This has always been my dream — I always wanted to be in the healthcare field,”
he said, adding that his ambition is to become a certified nursing assistant.
Others now working as PSAs at HMC have backstories as well. Some are retired or semi-retired CNAs who succeeded in finding work that is rewarding on many levels. Others are getting started down the road to careers in healthcare and have taken this entry- level position to explore options and find out if healthcare is for them. Some are in pharmacy programs. One is studying for her MBA.
The PSA position is relatively new to HMC, and healthcare in general, and it represents an imaginative and innovative step forward from the ‘sitter’ or ‘patient observer’ role seen in most hospitals, said Margaret-Ann Azaro, vice president of Patient Care Services and chief Nursing officer at HMC.
Their Lifesaving
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Photos by Holyoke Medical Center
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As soon
as I saw it,
I jumped on
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Light on a New
Position at HMC By George O’Brien
[email protected]
healt”
hen Gabe Mokwuah came to this country from Nigeria when he was 12 and heard people talking about ‘football,’ he thought about the sport played with a round ball that athletes try to kick into a net.
The other football, the one that is much more popular in this country? He didn’t know anything about it, and didn’t
really want to know anything about it.
But that didn’t stop the football coach at his New York City high
school from trying to convince the large, fast, and very athletic Mokwuah to try out for the team. Eventually, and we’re simplifying things here, he succeeded in those efforts. But even then, Mokwuah wasn’t really interested in the sport.
It wasn’t until he started hearing the word ‘scholarship’ and came to understand that football could be a means to an end — a college education and a ticket out of a high-crime area on Staten Island — that he began to really take it seriously.
Fast-forwarding through the next several years, Mokwuah did
hcare field.
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