Influential Women Showcases Sandra Oglesby: Transforming Ambulatory Healthcare Via Hands-On Leadership And Excellence

TAMPA, FL, UNITED STATES, August 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Accomplished Healthcare Executive and Registered Nurse Brings 40 Years of Nursing Experience and 30 Years of Leadership to Building High-Performing Surgical Teams and Patient-Centered Organizations

Sandra Oglesby is a highly accomplished healthcare executive, registered nurse, and Co-Owner of Clin Access Solutions whose four-decade career reflects a deep commitment to clinical excellence, compassionate care, and people-centered leadership. With 40 years of clinical nursing experience and 30 years in progressive leadership positions, Sandra has developed a distinctive leadership philosophy grounded in visibility, accountability, respect, and service.

Today, she serves as the Administrator and CEO of a high-volume, multi-specialty ambulatory surgery center at TGH Brandon Health Plex in Valrico, Florida. In this role, she oversees complex daily operations, leads a multidisciplinary executive team, and provides strategic direction at the governing board level. Under her leadership, the center has earned national recognition from Newsweek magazine as one of America’s Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers and has consistently ranked among the top three in Florida for the past five years.

Sandra’s clinical background spans trauma, high-risk obstetrics, and perianesthesia care, giving her firsthand knowledge of the demands faced by healthcare professionals working in high-acuity environments. That experience continues to shape her approach as an executive, allowing her to make operational decisions with a clear understanding of what clinicians, physicians, and patients experience on the front lines.

Her career has also included directing multi-state surgery center enterprises across six states, along with extensive expertise in ambulatory surgery center operations and revenue cycle management. Throughout these roles, she has become known for transforming organizations through culture-driven leadership, strategic hiring, physician engagement, staff retention, and a unified “one team” philosophy.

Leading by Serving
Sandra attributes her success to knowing the type of leader she wants to be based on the leaders she encountered earlier in her career—and specifically learning from leaders she did not want to emulate.

As a staff nurse, she experienced leadership styles that shaped her understanding of what effective leadership should and should not look like. Those experiences ultimately helped her define a leadership philosophy centered on being present for her team.

When employees need help or support, Sandra believes a leader should be willing to step away from the office and get involved, whether that means transporting a patient, mopping a floor, or starting an IV. She believes that when an administrator and CEO is willing to roll up their sleeves alongside the team, it creates engagement and demonstrates that leadership is about serving others.

Her philosophy is simple: her team does the hard work every day, and her responsibility is to give them the tools they need to succeed. If they are short-staffed or need an additional set of hands, she has two hands fully capable of helping.

For Sandra, that visibility has tangible benefits. It strengthens engagement, supports retention, and creates a culture where employees feel valued. Many members of her current team have previously worked with her at other facilities and ultimately joined her again because they recognized an opportunity to work within an environment where leadership is accessible and supportive.

Building Sustainable Change
One of the most important pieces of career advice Sandra has received is that change does not happen overnight. Sustainable improvement requires commitment, accountability, and consistency.

She believes organizations cannot simply introduce a new initiative and expect transformation to occur immediately. Leaders must remain committed to the process, hold people accountable, and create a positive culture that encourages teams to embrace change.

For Sandra, leadership means committing to making a workplace better for everyone involved—from patients and physicians to employees and the broader organization. She also believes effective leaders should surround themselves with good people, provide clear direction, and avoid micromanaging.

Her approach is therefore built around trust: give capable people the direction and resources they need, then allow them to do their jobs.

Nursing as a Way of Life
Sandra views nursing as much more than a job or career. To her, nursing is a way of life that fundamentally changes the person who practices it.

She believes that caring for people every day naturally develops compassion and teaches nurses to understand the fear and vulnerability patients experience. Whether someone is preparing for surgery, recovering from trauma, or preparing to give birth, nurses have the responsibility to provide strength, reassurance, and support.

For young women entering nursing, Sandra emphasizes that compassion is essential. Technical knowledge and clinical expertise are critical, but the ability to genuinely care for people remains at the heart of the profession.

Navigating a Specialized Healthcare Environment
Staffing remains one of the most significant challenges Sandra sees across healthcare, particularly amid the ongoing nursing shortage. She emphasizes that not all nursing environments require the same skill sets.

In an ambulatory surgery center, nurses must be highly specialized because they may not have access to the same resources available in an inpatient hospital. They must be capable of recognizing when a patient is deteriorating and intervening before a serious situation develops.

Many of Sandra’s nurses have backgrounds in emergency departments or intensive care units, and those experiences are essential for working in pre-operative and post-anesthesia care. Because her facility is a multi-specialty surgery center, intraoperative staff must also be comfortable working across specialties such as orthopedics, general surgery, and urology.

Physician engagement is another important priority. Because physicians bring patients to the center, Sandra understands the importance of efficient scheduling, accurate case times, and minimizing unnecessary downtime. Operational efficiency ultimately contributes to physician satisfaction, staff performance, and the patient experience.

She also sees significant opportunities on the financial side of healthcare, particularly in working with payers. Ensuring that authorizations are secured, processes move smoothly, and teams understand the limitations of payer contracts can make a meaningful difference in organizational performance.

Authenticity, Integrity, and Leading by Example
At the center of Sandra’s leadership philosophy are authenticity, integrity, respect, trust, and vulnerability.

She believes integrity means doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do—not because someone is watching. She also believes strongly in creating a culture where no individual’s job is more important than another’s.

Trust is particularly important in healthcare. Leaders must trust their teams to do the right thing while also being willing to have difficult conversations, explain why decisions matter, and bring employees into the process.

Sandra also embraces vulnerability, recognizing that leaders must be able to admit when they are wrong, acknowledge mistakes, and learn from decisions that did not produce the intended outcome.

Ultimately, she believes in leading by example.

Despite spending 30 of her 40 years in nursing in leadership, Sandra remains a hands-on nurse. If a team member needs an IV started, she is willing to step in. She remains visible and capable of functioning in the nursing roles she oversees. While she may not always move as quickly as her team or navigate an electronic health record as quickly as those working in it every day, she understands the work because she has done it herself.

For Sandra, leadership cannot happen entirely from behind an office door. Her team needs to know that their leader is present, understands their challenges, and is willing to help when help is needed.

Through decades of clinical practice and executive leadership, Sandra Oglesby continues to demonstrate that some of the most effective healthcare leadership begins with a simple principle: serve the people who serve the patients. By combining clinical expertise with operational discipline and a deeply human approach to leadership, she continues to build stronger teams, more resilient organizations, and better experiences for the patients and professionals at the heart of healthcare.

Learn More about Sandra Oglesby:

Through her Influential Women profile, https://influentialwomen.com/connect/Sandra-Oglesby

Influential Women

Influential Women provides a platform where women from all backgrounds can connect, share their perspectives, and create content that empowers themselves and others. Through storytelling, thought leadership, and creative expression, Influential Women amplifies voices that inspire change.

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Written By: EIN Presswire