JUGGLING ACT

A day in the life of a healthcare administrator

The Watts Healthcare story began in 1967. Born out of the 1965 Watts riots, the once volunteer clinic included a small number of private physician offices in the South Los Angeles area. At the time, residents only had access to public healthcare from the County Department of Health Services. Almost 60 years later, the facility has grown from its flagship clinic—Watts Health Center—to one of the country’s most comprehensive private nonprofit, community-based organizations.

These days, Chief Operating Officer Olusheyi Lawoyin, Ph.D., starts each day huddled with her clinical and operations teams to preview same-day appointment availability, provider call-outs and opportunities for same-day appointment recovery. She also guides teams on access priorities for the day based on this data, working very closely with the Chief Medical Officer to tackle any and all expected and unexpected challenges with patient grievances, system issues and execution of rapid-fire deadlines.

“The most effective leaders are willing to ask why a process exists, what problem it was originally solving and whether that problem still exists in the same way today.”

— Samantha Morgenstern, MS, RD, CDN, VP/Operations for Sodexo, supporting NYC Health + Hospitals

“There is no such thing as a ‘typical’ day in my role,” Dr. Lawoyin says. “That is both the challenge and what I enjoy about my work. I’ve learned to pivot and constantly prioritize what I do each day, based on the demands on my time and the needs of my health center. This varies by day. A constant operational priority I try to protect every single day is access to care for our patient populations, making sure patients can actually get in the door and utilize our services. Workforce stability is also a must, because everything else collapses if we don’t have people to deliver care.”

In today’s demanding healthcare landscape, administrators continue to evolve with the times, tackling everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to patient expectations. Dr. Lawoyin says this makes the day-to-day promise to meet the ultimate in healthcare delivery as daunting as ever.

“The pace has evolved dramatically and shows no signs of slowing down,” she says. “Today’s healthcare administrator is both an operator and strategist. Coming up in this field, I was highly focused on process management and people management. One-time projects are now an ongoing operational reality. Short-term Electronic Health Record implementation projects now involve integrating AI-assisted documentation tools, predictive scheduling or population health analytics on top of that, which requires administrators who understand both the technology and the human resistance to it.”

Dr. Lawoyin says that because clinicians do not attend medical school to interact with algorithms, managing that tension thoughtfully continues to be a demonstration of leadership. “Approaches to value-based care require strong operators who can build systems that can perform consistently, measure outcomes effectively and adapt to evolving reimbursement models. This is a big part of my role at this time.”

With patient expectations rising, they expect more from the systems that serve them. Dr. Lawoyin says that puts a premium on navigating and improving patient experience. “Your greatest instrument in measuring this outcome is your patient’s voice. Today’s administrator has to hold space for patient and population voices and subsequently create systems that are responsive to the needs of their patient populations.”

Mastering the Arc of Leadership

Ask Muhammad Tayyab and he’ll say no two days are alike. As Chief of Staff for the Midwest Express Clinic, he works within a network of 60-plus locations serving communities across Northwestern Indiana and the Chicago metro area. His role touches everything from supporting new clinic openings and working with regional leaders to monitoring performance across its locations and helping solve operational challenges as they arise.

“At the core of everything is a simple goal: making healthcare more accessible, convenient and easier to navigate for the communities we serve,” Tayyab says. “Whether we’re opening a new location, supporting clinic teams or improving processes, we’re focused on helping patients get the care they need close to home.”

Founded in 2012 with one location in Munster, Indiana, Midwest Express Clinic has grown into one of the Midwest’s largest independent urgent care and primary care providers. Today, it provides preventive care, occupational health services, diagnostic testing, X-rays, ultrasounds, laboratory services and other in-house medical offerings designed to improve convenience, access and continuity of care.

“When teams feel supported and empowered to make decisions, organizations are better positioned to respond to challenges and deliver strong patient experiences.” 

— Muhammad Tayyab, Chief of Staff, Midwest Express Clinic

Tayyab’s daily push is to help scale both its operations and workforce to meet growing demand while maintaining a patient-centered approach to care—a role that requires staying resilient, efficient and patient-focused. “As we’ve grown, we’ve worked hard to maintain a local, neighborhood-focused approach. That means listening to the people delivering care every day, understanding what’s happening in the communities and being willing to adapt when needs change.”

Midwest Express Clinic also has found that empowering local leaders is critical. Tayyab says the people closest to its patients often have the best understanding of what’s working, what’s not and where improvements can be made.

“When teams feel supported and empowered to make decisions, organizations are better positioned to respond to challenges and deliver strong patient experiences,” he says. “At the end of the day, resilience comes from staying connected to the people and communities you serve. If you’re listening to patients, supporting your teams and remaining adaptable, you’re in a much better position to navigate change successfully.”

Feeding a System, Serving a City

For Samantha Morgenstern, MS, RD, CDN, VP of Operations for Sodexo supporting NYC Health + Hospitals, patient care extends well beyond exam rooms and clinical settings. Every day, her team helps ensure that more than 17,000 meals reach patients across 11 hospitals, five post-acute care facilities and a commissary kitchen throughout New York City.

“My focus is less on routine and more on making sure food and nutrition services are working together across a large and complex healthcare system,” Morgenstern says. “Each morning begins with a review of operational performance, patient experience, staffing levels, financial results and any overnight issues before connecting with leadership teams to address immediate priorities and keep long-term initiatives moving forward.”

Like many healthcare leaders, Morgenstern sees workforce challenges as one of the greatest pressures facing healthcare organizations today. While staffing shortages can affect virtually every department, she notes that in food and nutrition services, they have a direct impact on meal production, delivery timing and the overall patient experience.

“Healthcare has always been a people business, but expectations have changed faster than the systems supporting them,” she says. “The biggest challenge isn’t that healthcare workers aren’t willing to do the job. It’s that we’re asking today’s workforce to succeed within systems that weren’t designed for today’s demands.”

While technology is helping organizations respond, Morgenstern says it has fundamentally reshaped the administrator’s role. Today’s leaders must manage information, spot emerging issues and make decisions faster than ever before. Across NYC Health + Hospitals, technology is helping forecast demand, optimize staffing, identify operational risks and provide real-time visibility into performance. “AI doesn’t replace decision-making, it speeds everything up. Leaders still have to make the calls, but now they’re doing it with more information and less time.”

“Approaches to value-based care require strong operators who can build systems that can perform consistently, measure outcomes effectively and adapt to evolving reimbursement models.”

— Olusheyi Lawoyin, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer, Watts Healthcare Corp.

At the same time, patients increasingly expect care experiences that feel faster, more personalized, culturally aware and transparent. Morgenstern says balancing those expectations while managing large-scale operations requires organizations to build systems capable of responding quickly when disruptions occur. “The key isn’t to avoid change. It’s building the capability to respond quickly and effectively when it happens while maintaining consistency in patient care and nutrition services.”

She recalls a plant-forward menu initiative she helped implement across NYC Health + Hospitals in 2021. The effort required redesigning workflows, educating teams and building support across a vast healthcare network. The initiative showed that meaningful operational change often happens through consistent, incremental improvements that eventually reshape how an entire system thinks and operates.

“The most effective leaders are willing to ask why a process exists, what problem it was originally solving and whether that problem still exists in the same way today,” Morgenstern says. “Healthcare doesn’t just need people who can manage the system. It needs people who are willing to make it better.” Today’s healthcare administrators are being asked to do more than keep operations running smoothly. They must balance people, technology and patient expectations while building organizations that can adapt, improve and thrive amid constant change.