Health care’s invisible leaders: Group practice administrators, creating clarity in chaos

Turn on a medical drama, and the cast list is familiar: emergency room physicians, nurses, and other clinicians making split-second decisions. These are good, compelling stories to tell. Another real story rarely makes the screen: the practice administrators and managers who keep ambulatory care running, behind the scenes, with a similar sense of purpose.

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) celebrates National Medical Group Practice Week, which recognizes these teams and leaders who make care possible across thousands of medical group practices.

“Across the health care ecosystem, medical group practices help patients get the right care, in the right place, at the right time — often before a condition becomes an emergency,” shared Akash Madiah, acting CEO of MGMA. “Practice administrators are central to that mission, partnering with physicians and ensuring the systems behind care work the way patients need them to.”

The work can be hard to spot from the waiting room. It shows up in the steadiness of the day: schedules that stay on time, phones and messages that get answered, staff who feel supported, physicians who can focus on care delivery and patients who can move through their journey with fewer obstacles.

The mission in medical group practices

For many administrators, this isn’t “just operations.” It’s a call to service — often shaped by early exposure to the industry from family members, or entry-level roles that evolve into a career.

Dea Robinson, Ph.D., FACMPE, CPC, now a director of hospital medicine programs for CommonSpirit Health, remembers the moment when practice leadership stopped being an abstract concept and became lived reality in her earlier work starting a private practice with one physician.

“I didn’t have a nurse. I was the staff,” Robinson said. She handled billing, charting, chaperoning — the full stack of work that keeps a practice functional. The experience, Robinson said, “set the stage” for everything that followed in her career.

Andre Beach, MBA, chief operating officer of Denver Arthritis Clinic, describes the administrator’s job less like bureaucracy and more like stewardship. Health care is “a dynamic, ever-changing industry,” Beach said, and “my job is to create clarity amongst chaos” — aligning people, processes and priorities so the workplace is a place where teams can do great work together.

Forging a career in group practice

In practice life, leadership often emerges through what Beach calls “the chaos promotion.” Someone excels as a staff member, becomes the go-to fixer and gets elevated into management because competence is obvious. Overnight, the job changes. Technical mastery still matters, but it’s no longer sufficient. The new administrative leader must learn to lead people, build trust and shape the environment where others can succeed.

Tori Cordova, CPPM, CPC, COC, CHONC, senior manager, practice administration, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, describes a daily routine that builds confidence the old-fashioned way: showing up, listening and staying close to the work.

“The one constant thing is checking in [with] all my teams, all my providers, every day…making sure there’s visibility there,” Cordova said, “because visibility builds credibility.” Cordova added, “I love problem solving…it’s OK that no two days look the same.”

That shift — from performing tasks to developing people — is one of the most important transitions in practice leadership. Early on, success can look like personal achievement. Lasting success comes in personnel achievement: coaching, setting expectations, navigating conflict, reinforcing standards and helping others grow into their own roles.

Relational leadership

Beach described the evolution into practice leadership as being “less about control…and more about influence and the people and what I can do and how it can motivate others.”

That influence is built through relationships and consistency — and in many organizations, it’s strengthened through the administrative-clinical dyad. Robinson emphasized how much progress becomes possible when the partnership is intentional.

“I’m a big believer in the strength of a dyad relationship,” Robinson said. “I can’t really emphasize enough how much you can achieve when you have a strong dyad partnership.” Robinson described starting each day aligned with a physician partner — a small habit that prevents small issues from becoming large ones.

Continuous learning

The most effective administrators also share another trait: an “administrative CME” mindset. Regulations shift. Staffing models evolve. Patient expectations change. Technology disrupts workflows. Leaders who thrive treat continuous learning as a professional obligation rather than an optional hobby.

“Always ask questions, because learning never ends,” Cordova said. MGMA sees that appetite for learning across the profession, from formal credentials and leadership development to peer mentoring, practical toolkits and communities of practice that help leaders trade notes on what’s working right now.

Learning is also how leaders move through the internal tension many administrators might experience after rapid advancement. Beach doesn’t treat it as unusual.

“Work on managing your imposter syndrome, because it’s real,” Beach said. “It’s real to this day.” The pathway forward, Beach explained, is to pair opportunity with skill-building — saying “yes” to the work while also building the competence to do it well.

Building the future of group practices

As we celebrate NMGP Week 2026, there’s another reason this story matters: the “missing middle.” Postpandemic turnover and retirements have thinned the bench in many organizations. The next generation of practice leaders is emerging, but the pathway can’t be accidental. It needs structure: mentorship, time to learn, room to lead and leaders who make development a priority.

Robinson’s advice for sustaining a career in health care is the kind that also sustains the pipeline for future medical group practice leaders.

“Stay curious,” Robinson said. “And the other thing is…give back.” Giving back can mean volunteering, mentoring, teaching and creating opportunities for others to practice leadership before the next vacancy forces a rushed promotion.

NMGP Week is about recognition for many thousands across the industry, but it’s also an invitation: Notice the invisible work and invest in the leaders who do it. When practice administrators build clarity, credibility and culture, the entire care team benefits and patients feel the difference.

Chris Harrop is a senior editor on MGMA's Training and Development team, helping turn data complexity, the steady flow of news headlines and frontline feedback into practical tools and advice for medical group leaders.