Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 2, 1 February 1989 — Career Blossoms for Clinic Manager [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Career Blossoms for Clinic Manager

When the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center was formed, its community-based board of directors made a commitment to promote eeonomie and career opportunities for its community. Most of its 250 full- to part-time employees are hired from loeal area residents. Continuing this philosophy has creating a career ladder at WCCHC that many of its staff have been able to climb.

One whose career is an outstanding example of this process is assistant administrator Marianne K. Glushenko, a Nanakuli resident. Her promotion to the number two spot on the center's administrative team in August 1988 capped a string of career steps in a 15-year career that also parallels the growth of Wai'anae's major health facility. Some of her major accomplishments have been to develop the clinic's data processing system, set up on line electronic billing with the Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), and streamline operations for greater efficiency.

Now second to WCCHC administrator Mike Tweedell, Glushenko's major responsibility is to deal with internal operations such as payroll and data processing. She focuses on overall systems and patients, delivery of services, waiting areas, and interdepartmental eommunieahon. Glushenko is a strong believer in the board's philosophy and says department heads look for creative ways to provide upward mobility for staff, keeping in mind the strength of individuals. As expansion of services necessitates reorganizing the staff, managers like Glushenko look for ways to provide career advances for staff and still maintain business efficiency. Staff are also encouraged to pursue continuing education whieh will help them advance in their jobs.

Yet Glushenko recognizes that while this innovative approach is working for WCCHC, it may not suit the downtown model for executive promotion. "As positions expand, responsibilities increase too. We try to do it in creative ways. Yet we can't forget we are a business. We can't overdo either aspect. We must balance this with eommunity service." Glushenko, the former Mananne Kai of Makaha, attended Kamehameha Schools and later graduated from Farrington in 1969. After

graduation, she worked with the model cities program in Wai'anae in the early 1970s, at a time when the program was bringing new services to the coast. In 1973 she began work for the fledgling Wai'anae coast health center as a clerk-typist. She was next an accounting clerk and showed such aptitude for the field, learning on the job, that she soon rose to senior accounting clerk, chief accountant, fiscal manager, and wasfinance director for several years just prior to her latest appointment. With characteristic modesty she says she feels fortunate to have worked with "really good people," who knew their jobs and who were willing to train her, as she later trained her staff.

Glushenko is married to Ronald Glushenko, and they have four children, Ronald Jr., Robert, Marilyn, and Liko. Her mother is Mary Beazley and stepfather is Delwin Beazley, Sr. of Makaha. Her father is Herbert Kai, Jr. and stepmom Leialoha Kai. The family lives in Nanakuli on homestead land. She tries to keep active in sports, especially volleyball, and in hula.

Marianne Glushenko