UH Ahuja Hospitalist Prizes Conversations and Connections
December 15, 2024
UH Clinical Update | December 2024
No chair in the patient’s hospital room? Aryeh (Ari) Shapiro, MD, Site Director and Hospitalist at UH Ahuja Medical Center and the hospital’s Chair of Medicine and Medical Specialties, says an overturned garbage can will work in a pinch. It’s that important, he says, to sit down, take a moment and have a conversation with the patient and family.
Ari Shapiro, MD“In the hospital, it’s a whirlwind and we’re trying to get to everyone and get through the day,” he says. “But when you walk in the patient’s room, you have to make them feel that you have all the time in the world for them. You can’t just stand in the door and say, ‘You’re doing better, you’re going to go home.’ Studies show that if you sit down, patients think you’re in the room longer. They perceive that you’re with them in the moment. That’s a connection I can make with people, because they are the ones who know their body, and so we need to listen to them to get them better.”
After completing his medical degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and internal medicine residency at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Shapiro joined UH as a hospitalist at UH Portage in 2017. Moving to UH Ahuja just about a year later, he has made a positive impact in many ways, says Jessica Goldstein, MD, the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer.
“Our caregivers admire Dr. Shapiro for his support for our APPs, his compassion for our patients, and his openness to answer questions from our nursing staff,” Dr. Goldstein says. “He is continually looking to improve value for patient's journey in our healthcare system. In a recent survey of our medical staff, the strength of the hospitalist team was called out as one of UH Ahuja Medical Center’s greatest assets. Ari’s leadership and modeling of professionalism, patience, and collegiality are cornerstones of our group's excellence. We are proud to have him as our Chair of Medicine at UH Ahuja and a mentor to our APPs and nursing staff.”
UH CEO Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, Jane and Henry Meyer Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair, recently recognized Dr. Shapiro for his stellar performance with a “Dinner with the Doc” honor.
Dr. Goldstein also specifically highlights Dr. Shapiro’s work helping determine the correct status for patients on admission, optimizing the use of MRI and echocardiogram and standardizing care paths in the UH Ahuja observation unit.
As a self-professed “primary care doctor in the hospital,” Dr. Shapiro says it’s this work in the observation unit that is some of the most fulfilling he does – where he can have an almost-immediate impact and patients often return home after just a short period.
Dr. Shapiro says that a career as a physician seemed to be in the cards for him at a relatively young age. When he was 10 or 11, a family video of his younger brother’s birth captured a young Ari asking many questions about what he was seeing. His uncle’s response, “You’ll learn about that in medical school” – and so he has. In addition, some health issues Ari experienced in high school only deepened his interest.
“Some of my own health issues spurred me to understand more about the human body and how to use that knowledge to alleviate suffering and make people whole again,” he says.
In his work today, Dr. Shapiro says he relishes his role in general medicine – especially when solving medical puzzles when more than one organ system is involved.
“Even though most internal medicine residents do a subspecialty, I think I knew all along that I would do general medicine,” he says. “I like everything, and I like looking at the whole picture. Obviously there are times when specialist input is valuable, so knowing how to involve them is a skill. But I try to pride myself on being that super-hospitalist to look at the whole person and use all my abilities to make every part of them better.”
Congratulations to Dr. Shapiro on his “Dinner with the Doc” honor.