Key Takeaways
- Prioritizing a 'yes' culture with direct C-suite mentorship empowers fellows to engage meaningfully in high-level decision-making processes.
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Prasana Ruxmohan entered healthcare because she experienced the access challenges her own family faced. In her words, “What really kind of triggered me to get into healthcare and operations was my own personal experience of accessibility... my parents were second generation from Africa, really navigating that space, English not being their first language.” These early challenges shaped her passion for patient-centered improvement, especially in outpatient settings where linguistic and cultural barriers can leave patients feeling adrift.
Personal experience with healthcare navigation as a child of immigrants
Recognition of outpatient care’s unique gaps: Outpatient facilities have historically lagged behind hospitals in language services and patient navigation.
Desire to transform operations for better access: “That is kind of like the role I play within ambulatory operations, which is access, capacity, and really transforming our operations in regards to inefficiencies that are happening,” she explains.
Takeaway: For aspiring leaders, firsthand experience with healthcare’s frontlines can be a powerful motivator—and a critical lens for driving meaningful change.
The UCI Health Administrative Fellowship stands out for its hands-on, project-based approach, top-level mentorship, and unique mission. Ruxmohan applied to just seven fellowships nationwide, seeking programs with:
Project-based—not rotation-based—structure
Direct mentorship from senior leaders: At UCI Health, “My preceptors are the CEO and COO. I’ve loved that partnership.”
A mission centered on both friendliness and accessibility: “To be the most friendliest, but also the most accessible, is very hard to come by in a mission,” she says.
Exposure to high-level decision-making
Fellows are part of the “room where it happens,” learning not just how decisions are made, but why.
Supportive, open culture
“At UCI Health, I always said this—they’re a yes organization. If you bring on something, they’ll say yes… there are people that are there to really help you and support you but also to see you grow.”
Diverse patient and workforce population
The Orange County environment and UCI Health itself are noted for their celebration of cultural diversity, from employees to patients.
For professionals considering administrative fellowships: UCI Health offers not just a credential, but a genuinely transformative environment for leadership development.
UCI Health addresses cultural and language barriers head-on by providing in-person and virtual translation services and actively celebrating patient and staff diversity.
Ruxmohan highlights that in Orange County, a significant portion of patients speak Vietnamese or Spanish, so language access is a core operational priority. “We have adapted, having translation services on our floors, especially in the outpatient setting, having that in-person touch and feel. Even when we can’t accommodate, we have Zooms where translators come in,” she shares.
Translation services tailored to population needs
Cultural celebrations integrated into daily operations
“We’re celebrating Diwali, we’re celebrating Black History Month, Chinese New Year… You’re seeing not only your patients celebrating with you, but your employees also engaged in that atmosphere.”
Proactive outreach for patient navigation: Ruxmohan notes the challenge of helping patients from various backgrounds understand how to access care—an ongoing, organization-wide effort.
Actionable insight for other organizations: Investing in both operational and cultural strategies can turn a diverse workforce and patient population into an enduring organizational strength.
A Transformation Specialist in ambulatory operations is a change agent, responsible for turning strategic ideas into operational realities—while securing buy-in and improving both efficiency and patient experience.
Ruxmohan explains: “You’re not only doing project management but you’re in the weeds of trying to bring ideas to fruition… many times, strategies are formulated, then they hit operations. It’s like, okay, how do we take that next step?”
Identify pain points and inefficiencies in ambulatory operations
Partner with directors and clinic managers to co-design solutions
Drive adoption of new workflows or technologies
Maintain patient-centric perspective: Ensuring that any changes improve—not just preserve—access and experience
Distinct from directors, who make final calls and manage day-to-day flow, the specialist acts as a connector and project leader, moving the organization forward.
The day-to-day for an ambulatory operations transformation specialist at UCI Health is fast-paced, collaborative, and solution-oriented—balancing digital transformation, access challenges, and direct stakeholder engagement.
“I deal more with what are the solutions associated with these problems and how do I connect those pieces with the chairs… If we’re not thinking about the next step for us as an organization or specialty, then we’re just going to continue to be putting out fires,” Ruxmohan notes.
Problem-solving phone calls with clinical chairs and managers
Collaborating on digital transformation initiatives (e.g., hospital expansion, digital access projects)
Stakeholder meetings to identify and address capacity issues
Partnering on operational improvements that reduce staff burnout and improve patient throughput
Average hours? While the schedule can be demanding, the focus is less on “putting out fires” and more on sustainable, system-level improvement.
Experiencing healthcare systems across Texas, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, and California gave Ruxmohan a uniquely broad perspective. She saw firsthand how each region’s population, technology adoption, and strategic priorities differed:
Dallas (UT Southwestern): Focus on emerging technologies
Missouri (Barnes Jewish): Addressing patient throughput and ED crowding
California (UCI Health): Emphasizing diversity, access, and digital transformation
“Each place has a different experience and a different population… each spot has their own challenges and their own in-depths,” she says.
For future healthcare leaders: Seek out experiences beyond your home turf—regional diversity is a training ground for innovative, flexible problem-solving.
Career progression after a transformation specialist role is dynamic—and increasingly, it may mean inventing your own job. Ruxmohan’s path demonstrates how the most rewarding opportunities often don’t exist yet.
“I told my boss, my job doesn’t exist today… I’ve really enjoyed the digital operation side of things, being the connector piece to a lot of our digital technology and pain points. That would be kind of a new position in a way that would have to be invented.”
Digital operations lead or informatics integration specialist
Launching new internal teams focused on automation and AI in ambulatory settings
Entrepreneurship—building solutions for persistent healthcare gaps
Takeaway: Healthcare is moving fast, and the next generation of leaders will be those who can bridge clinical, operational, and digital domains.
Prasana Ruxmohan’s entrepreneurial streak led her to found, scale, and sell an app-based company, Advocacy and Maternal Health, in St. Louis. This platform connected patients with nonprofit resources—from doulas to diaper banks—in real time.
“We have so many nonprofits, amazing works being done, but it’s hard to connect people to what’s happening… so [the app] was basically to connect all these nonprofits to a patient.” The company was acquired and is now expanding beyond St. Louis, using the technology backbone she helped build.
For other healthcare leaders: Applying entrepreneurial thinking—connecting resources, closing gaps, leveraging technology—can translate to major operational and patient impact.
One high-impact digital project Ruxmohan led targets provider burnout by automating patient messages and appointment management through Epic (UCI’s EHR system).
“If there’s a way to automate some of the messages… automatically add me to a waitlist… if a patient doesn’t show up, I can show up within a vicinity. So, we’re looking for automation to help support us, rather than each person having to use a dot phrase or manually type in.”
Automated appointment waitlist management
Smart inbox sorting for providers
Epic dot phrase optimizations
Cross-team collaboration (clinical informaticists, directors, frontline staff) to vet solutions and address risks before launch
Lesson for executives: Meaningful digital transformation starts with frontline pain points—and succeeds through deep cross-functional partnership.
UCI Health’s open, supportive culture stands out for its commitment to mentorship, networking, and professional growth. Ruxmohan emphasizes that at UCI, reaching out to leaders—even the CEO or COO—for a one-on-one conversation or project advice is not just permitted, but encouraged.
“I always said this—they’re a yes organization. Even when it came to me reaching out for a one-on-one or coaching advice, there are people there to help you and support you, but also to see you grow.”
Access to C-suite mentors
Encouragement for proactive coffee chats and informal meetings
A culture that supports pilot projects and innovation from all levels
For fellowship candidates: Look for organizations where mentorship is not an afterthought but a core leadership value.
Building connections—and the confidence to reach out—is a learnable skill, not an innate talent. Ruxmohan confesses, “When I first started, I was really shy… but I learned a lot of communication styles from mentors like Colette Kennedy, now CEO at Carl Broman. After those experiences, I understood how different communication styles work for different leaders.”
Take the initiative for coffee or lunch chats
Develop relationships across disciplines—clinical, operational, digital
Don’t be afraid to ask for advice, coaching, or support
Value diverse experiences—each connection can unlock new solutions
Core message: Connections don’t just help you get jobs—they help you get things done.
Prasana Ruxmohan’s journey through the UCI Health Administrative Fellowship and beyond illustrates the profound impact that diverse lived experiences, robust mentorship, and entrepreneurial spirit can have on U.S. healthcare systems. Her leadership story shows that operational transformation is about more than process—it’s about people, partnership, and persistent problem-solving. As healthcare grows ever more complex, the organizations that succeed will be those that invest in leaders who are both connectors and innovators.
<p>[Music] everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy and here with me is Pana a ambulatory operations leader person why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself yeah hi everyone my name is Persona Rooks Mahan I was born and raised in Dallas Texas and have had various experiences kind of Across the Nation so what really kind of triggered me to get into Healthcare and operations was my own personal experience of accessibility into healthc care and really the challenges that we face in this tangled web of getting an access um even to an appointment or even just to have a consult so that's really why I decided to get into Healthcare was not only my personal experience but my parents that were second generation from Africa really navigating that space English not being the first language for them I think that that especially it seems like in in the outpatient I've seen be a a issue why why is is it because there's mandates or there has been mandates for inpatient facilities to have language services and then an outpatient not so much why has it you know and why did you choose to go into the ambulatory outpatient side yeah so I think there's a couple things in regards to like translation services at UCI Health in particular um the population that we do see is more of like Vietnamese and Spanish speakers right so we have adapted of having translation services on our floors especially in the outpatient setting having that in-person touch feel even there are times right where we can't accommodate but then we have like zooms right where we have translators come in to kind of speak to that medical terminology in regards to like my own experience into Healthcare I think it was just hard in regards to not only getting an appointment of being that first entry pathway but how to get an appointment there are those right that wait soundlessly in the corner not knowing where to even start when it comes to healthcare especially from cultural different backgrounds um that is something I've notice kind of across not only my experience and my ethnicity but other backgrounds as well because there must be different ways of asking for an appointment or different ways of explaining what's wrong based on the culture you know different cultures right yeah so there's different ways to like notify patients right we I know we a lot of us rely on devices to kind of tell us what's the next step in our journey especially when it comes to like preventative care making sure these things are up to date but we rely on technology to kind of tell tell us that or sometimes providers to tell us like what is the next step what do I do at my age um so we're seeing a variations in different care gaps but to get an appointment right that is kind of like the role I kind of play Within ambulatory operations which is access capacity and really Transforming Our operations in regards to inefficiencies that are happening and and I think it's you have a good resume for this because you know the United States of course is is you know it's great it's becoming more diverse we have all kinds of you know different immigrants coming in but also across the country you know it seems like there's these own kind of cultural silos that occur across the country and you've been you know starting off in Texas and then Illinois it looks like and then at John's Hopkins on the east coast and then uh over to what I'm reading is Missouri and then now in in California so you've been kind of all over the country I wanted to ask something kind of personal about this you know I've traveled a little bit on the East Coast but my education and career has been kind of just at one institution just in one city what benefits have you seen from kind of being all over the country and getting all of these different methodologies and different ways that people use across the country yeah I think each institution or each place I've kind of been at they really all have a different strategic Vision each leader in itself com coming from like UT Southwestern out in Dallas right the emerging Technologies but within Missouri and the institutions at Barnes Jewish right we're worrying about like our throughput in our capacity our EDS are filled like patients are waiting so I think each place has a different experience and a different population in which they do serve and I think it's really a depth to how do we not only as a nation kind of address some of these capacity concerns but also I think technology kind of speaks to a lot of the changes that are happening but from a strategic Vision each spot has their own challenges and their own um in depths when you applied for fellowships coming you know from all this experience can I ask how many you applied to yeah so I applied to seven these seven in particular I looked at are they Project based I really didn't want to do rotations just because I've had different experiences being in strategy being in Market Intelligence being in digital emerging strategies and after all those like internships and exposures I was looking for a project based who my preceptors were because my preceptors are my mentors my preceptors here at UCI Health are the CEO and coo um so I've loved that partnership but also the product projects right what you get to see on that level how decisions are made how do we get to these decisions what are the next steps to be a forever organization so that is that I think was why I chose only seven fellowships and really looked and died into like the fellow's experiences what did they have exposure to in particular and you went with UCI health and you say that you really enjoyed it and I mean you've stayed with them after the fellowship so are you pretty passionate about their mission from what I'm gathering yes I will say I really love the whole leadership team after working with a lot of them coming on board it's not only like trying to be the most friendliest I've never heard that in a mission it's like patients are centered patients are first I've always heard that but to be the most friendliest but also the most accessible is very hard to come by right in a mission and being that identity can you tell us at all about what the population is like in Orange County California yes the population is pretty diverse I think actually being here at UCI Health in particular I've seen a diverse array of like nurses providers like people of like color um but people not only of color but I think from a cultural standpoint how indepth do we try to also enhance the patience that we do see and what I mean by that is like we have celebrating cultures where we celebrate holidays that I don't get to see most health systems do like we're celebrating Dali we're celebrating black his month that's so nice that's great Chinese New Year so it's like you're seeing not only your patience celebrating with you um but you're seeing your employees also engaged in that atmosphere when it comes to ambulatory operations what is a ambulatory operations transformation specialist how does that compare to somebody who's like the director of operations yeah so a transformation specialist in particular within ambulatory you're not only doing project management but you're in the weeds of trying to how do you bring ideas to fruition many times what happens is like all of these strategies are formulated and then they hit operations it's like okay how do we take that next step um what steps do we take who do we need to build Partnerships with not only from an operations like do we need procurement do we need Finance involved uh who are all the players really but in regards to transformation you're really not only trying to find what are our pain points in ambulatory and all the inefficiencies that are happening but also how do you make change while obtaining provider Buy in making sure people are comfortable with whatever those changes are happening where you're not only improving your efficiency but you're improving your patients's experience at the end of the day so I think really transformation Specialists are in those weeds trying to operationalize and bring to fruition in regards to the directors yes we partner with them right they understand their clinics they understand the flow the management of that as a specialist yes you do learn some of those pieces right but it's you're Mo you're mainly a partner with them in order to bring ideas to life um so directors make that final decision and Final Call more so than as like a specialist with an ambulatory what is your day-to-day look like then we just had spoken with earlier a operations you know kind of director who's like really every day is handling the goings on of all these different departments and you know her day-to-day seemed pretty intense uh what is your day-to-day like I assume you know you're not probably putting out fires per se but we'd love to kind of learn you know how many hours a week you know are you getting paged you know what does that look like yeah so a lot of my role I think it's a mix of like fires in regards to like access digital Transformations right UCI has a new hospital going up in irine so making sure some of those pieces are in a in a depth with it but in regards to like my day-to-day I not only have phone calls from like chairs um them trying to figure out like data pieces what is this telling me what can I do to improve these metrics how do I address this um so I think I deal more with like what are the solutions associated with these problems and how do I connect those pieces with the chairs but also being their partner more than anything because at the end of the day yes we can put out fires right but if we're not thinking about what is that next step for us as an organization or that specialty then we're just going to continue to be putting out fires right how do we mitigate that moving forward excellent so that that actually sheds a lot of light on how that partnership with the people you know the director of operations works is you're helping to kind of evolve things and move things forward and they're also helping to work to implement things that makes a lot of sense what what does the career progression look like after a ambulatory operations transformation specialist what is what's the next step for someone like yourself yeah so I is funny actually just had this conversation with my boss he asked me like where do you see yourself after this and honestly like I told him it does my job doesn't exist today like where I see myself after like not only starting like my own company but I've really I will say I've enjoyed the digital oper operation side of things so after understanding your paino is there a digital technology we can connect and how do we operationalize it like does it integrate with our EMR system how easy is it to also log into some of these attributes so I've really enjoyed being that connector piece to a lot of like our digital technology and what are my pain points happening so that would be kind of yeah it would be like a new like a new position in a way that would have to be kind of inv did but I think that's how some of the best positions come about right that's incredible so did you mention that you started your own you already started your own organization yeah so I actually just sold off my company it was called advocacy and maternal Health when I was at St Louis so that really addressed a lot of like the Partnerships within St Louis so we have so many not for-profits amazing Works being done across the world but I think it's very hard to connect people to what work is happening um so like having a doula how do I get access to a doua so as especially here in California I'm seeing some of these gaps is the same as like in Missouri like having a diaper bank is it close to me in my vicinity can they drop it off or can I go pick it up like what are my options so it was basically an app to kind of connect all these non for-profits to a patient that is incredible I didn't realize that I guess I should have scrolled I should I should have scrolled through your resume a bit more I did not realize that that's incredible good for you and and congratulations on on having that sold off I assume they're gonna you know continue to grow grow it yes yeah so that was only for like the St Louis Market they're planning I think to grow it across different hubs and spots um using the backbone of like that technology of the app excellent that that's wonderful so you kind of want to do something similar than connecting people but connecting problems with the digital Solutions what does that kind of look like from the position you're at now like what are some digital solutions to problems can you give us like some examples yeah so there's actually a project I'm actually working on with my director in regards to in basket so many times right our providers are burning out from in basket alerts that patients are sending in messages they're calling like any touch point you can think of like to get either a sooner appointment to get a medication refill like you name it Flora Under the Sun so if there's a way like to automate some of the messages yes we have dot phrases that are developed like if I'm asking for an earlier appointment like automatically add me to a weight list and if a patient doesn't show up I can show up for that appointment and I can show up within a vicinity so like if I only live five miles away I can actually come to that appointment so that those are some things right like we're looking for automation to help support us rather than each person having to use a DOT phrase or manually type in yes we will add you to a weight list or yes the weight list is not constructed the way we want it designed like looking in a vicinity so it's taking some of those tips and tricks and how do we use it but how do we also see that it's working for us is it not working so those that's like one of the projects that I I'm working on in regards to like digital technology enhancements that's excellent because see you guys do use epic then at UCI yes yes it was interesting with the dot phrases back when I was at neurology because it you know you end up getting so many dot phrases that you need like a DOT phrase for the you know for the dot phrase menu because there just so you know there's so many things but then at the same time sometimes patients send really odd you know messages and they're very long and the only person you could really understand is the Doctor Who's known them for 10 years so it is like weighing that like you know it might actually be something serious that even you know a medical assistant or a nurse wouldn't be able to pick up on because they're not the doctor themselves so it's like all you know these things you have to weigh out and so I wonder when you're making decisions how do you how have you developed strategic thinking to weigh them is it mentorship is it past experience is it your education you know how have you been able to make these critical decisions and projects like these yeah I honestly have thought Partners so especially when it came to this project I wanted a clinical informaticist also Associated so a provider that's also on the floor having a director having a manager having a supervisor and then we have these quarterbacks so they're nurses like nurse practitioners at times having these different experiences from the different teams allows me to understand what are the risks also associated with doing these decisions how do we address these risks so they're mitigated before day one even happens in order for me to even like start a project I have to ensure like my stakeholders are okay before I begin to actually begin that initiation and go through if there isn't I'd want to always hands down address what are my problems what are the risks associated with it how can we do it while still getting the Buy in that we need you mentioned as well you know you want a clinical informaticist on your team you want you know what does that look like at UCI I think that that might be kind of a key that some of the organizations could adopt do you simply just you know email one is it that easy like what does that look like yeah so a lot of I think through my fellowship I began to develop some of those relationships not only like across the organization but also those that are out on the floor and hand handling the dayto day so normally what that looks like right I would ask like our cmio if she has someone that she would appoint to a project sometimes right she might tell me yes like this is the person for it or like hey let's try this clinical informaticist because they're more ad depth or they have more experience in this area so I think I go to her for that leniency of like who is the right person before I bring in any clinical informaticist um with those out on the floor I lean to like my managers to kind of tell me hey who's that point person I can actually talk to to understand some things because they know like everyone knows like a couple people in their team that are really good at certain attributes and certain things within that area that's excellent so having that connections that you've developed along with having that you know really supportive leadership you know how did you I guess did was it always easy for you to Vel connections or just that was that a skill you had to learn how to build yeah so I will say when I first started it was like really shy in undergrad I'm not even going to lie to you very shy um had a hard time like speaking up or like trying to have a conversation but I think after a period of time I will say this one person really pushed me out of my box her name is Colette Kennedy I think after seeing her walk through and she's the person at Carl Broman now she's the CEO but I think after my experience with her seeing how she leads seeing how she talks to people I learned a lot of those attributes like of communication Styles and then after that like having one-on ones like it's okay to like go for coffee with someone yes like take 30 minutes out of your day to get up out of your desk just to go have a coffee chat or have lunch with someone or dinner build those connections right because at the end of the day you don't know when you're going to lean on them um when it comes to like hey like who's a great person to also think about for this like who else do you think should be involved it so I think after those experiences understanding how different communication Styles work for different leaders I learned a lot from colen like hands down that's that's really important advice too so it it really is those connections and they're going to help you to not just you know I know people talk about Connections sometimes like it helps you you know get the job but it actually helps you get stuff done too which is really important because that's that's where we're delivering value to the patients is by having this community to help get things done does during your fellowship did you have I know you said that you know the CEO and the COO were the the preceptors but was there also networking opportunities that presented themselves you know was the culture kind of open for networking in mentorship at UCI yeah so at UCI health I always said this they're a a yes organization so if you bring on like something hey would you be willing to Pilot this they would say yes like they are definitely a yes organization even when it came to me like reaching out to hey like can I set this one-on-one up with you or could I get some coaching advice like there are people that are there to really help you and support you but also to see you grow that is the unique aspect I will say right from a growing perspective that the organization is looking how do we emulate leaders at different levels of our organization to reach certain spots and attain those goals so that is something I will say that is very unique but they want to see you flourish that is uh wonderful and I think this will probably serve as a good advertisement for UCI I'm already thinking like you know California weather is really nice um I might have to I might have to take a look out there if I consider a fellowship so that that's excellent and I appreciate you coming on and sharing this with us I've really enjoyed just listening I think I could probably listen to you talk about your experiences for a while you have so many good ones so hopefully you'll consider coming on back sometime to maybe talk about your you know your business that you founded as well yeah absolutely always happy to share any expertise that I have great thank you so much</p>
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