Healthcare is a vast and varying field, and while leaders often find their way from within the industry, Sandra Gubbine, Assistant Vice President, Revenue Cycle at AtlantiCare, is one that took a different path to reach her position. Whether a person comes from within or outside of the healthcare industry, strong leadership is important no matter what, and Sandra found herself learning - and growing - on the fly.

Sandra came from an accounting background and noticing an ad for a finance manager at a local healthcare center led her down an unknown and ultimately rewarding career path.

“I landed in healthcare knowing nothing. I mean, absolutely knowing nothing about healthcare. So, in the beginning, I just did what I was told,” said Sandra. “(I found) out very quickly that what I was told wasn’t necessarily the best way to handle it when you start to learn revenue cycle. I really got immersed. I just got thrown in the pool and hoped that I could find a life preserver or learn how to swim. And so, I learned how to swim.”

And swim she did. Sandra said that because it was a smaller position, it gave her the opportunity to see how everything worked. She saw that they were experiencing around a 50% denial rate and knew that was something that needed to be fixed. Digging in and figuring things out on her own gave her the ability to grow and gain a better understanding of how the healthcare revenue cycle system worked which sparked the beginning of her leadership journey.

One of the first steps Sandra took was building trust with her team. She knew she couldn’t just expect them to follow her just because she was in charge.

“For many people, the first thing is ‘you don’t understand us,’” Sandra said. “Ok, then let me learn. That’s really how I have built my team. Then I sit in on meetings with them and advocate for them.”

Another part of building trust with teams is managing expectations and managing decisions. Sandra said that empowering those that don’t feel like they are able to speak helps you not only grow as a leader, but it shows team members that they also have the power to impact decisions.

With a solid team in place, Sandra’s next leadership challenge was working with cross-functional teams. Part of her position grew to include system conversions. Because these conversions involve the entire health system, she had to learn to not only work with different departments but lead them to a successful conversion.

“One thing I've learned is rev cycle tends to have to go closer to their other side. So, whether it's finance, general ledger or clinical, they're not going to come to me and understand my world,” Sandra said. “So, it's me going and understanding their problem and understanding how I can fix it for them, but always crossing the bridge at least 75%, if not 90%.”

For Sandra, true leadership is taking the time to see how people are responding to you. She said that too often leaders are too busy communicating to people without paying attention to how their audience is responding and react accordingly.

Sandra has had a long, fulfilling journey into healthcare leadership and she looks forward to continuing. When she was asked how others can start their leadership journey, she said always be looking for an opportunity. Sandra's journey is a reminder that it is sometimes the unexpected paths that bring the most joy and growth, you just have to be open to the opportunities

“Look in life for opportunity. That's kind of how my career has grown,” said Sandra. “I was never a goal setter, but I always looked for opportunity. But if you're not looking, you won't find it.

“Keep your ears and eyes open and look for opportunity. And when opportunity comes, it may stretch you. It may take you out of your comfort zone but give it a try. You can always go back to where you were but grab those opportunities.”