Page 55 - BusinessWest September 19, 2022

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Shukla
Continued from page 44
take care if 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 thongs we had to educate people on, and we did a lot of outreach for that.”
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
Glynn
Continued from page 36
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 cure cancer, and I find that sensible,” Glynn noted. “After all, we don’t cure diabetes, we don’t cure heart
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 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
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 him.
Glynn may not have written the definitive biography of cancer, but he has authored a remarkable career,
investment.”
Going all the way back to when he was volunteering
at the University of Missouri Hospital as a junior-
high student, Sunny Shulka 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
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
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
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
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