As a 2025 MGMA Future Five Award winner, Idalis McPhail, practice administrator at Fairfax Pediatric Associates, brings a unique perspective to leadership — one grounded in years of clinical experience and a deep understanding of patient care. In a recent episode of the MGMA Insights Podcast, hosted by Daniel Williams, McPhail discussed her transition from nursing to administration, her approach to improving communication and culture across departments, and the importance of leading with empathy and evidence-based strategies in today’s complex healthcare landscape.
From Nursing to Administration
McPhail began her career as a certified nursing assistant in a hospital before earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing and becoming a registered nurse.
“I really saw how my leaders, my managers, their motivation and their leadership was impacting staff morale. It was impacting patient outcomes,” she said. “And I just kind of felt I want to be a part of that. Like, I want to have that bigger impact.”
That realization inspired her to transition into nurse management while completing her master’s degrees in nursing and business administration.
“Very, very quickly after graduation, [I] transitioned at the beginning of this year in 2025 to practice administration,” she said. “So I've been from the nurse assistant side to the administration side. So I've learned a lot about the different aspects of healthcare for sure.”
Unifying Teams Around Patient Experience
At Fairfax Pediatric Associates, which has been in operation for nearly 60 years and employs about 80 staff members across three Northern Virginia locations, McPhail works to ensure that both the clinical and administrative sides of the organization stay connected.
“Because we have three different locations and because we have a lot of different departments, there really needed to be that unification between everybody,” she said. “We need to speak the same language. We need to be on the same page.”
For McPhail, that shared language comes from a common focus on patient experience. “It's the patient always, right? So it's patient first, it's patient experience,” she added. “The patient experience is not just the check-in process or the vital signs with the nurse or medical assistant or the provider visit."
McPhail explained that the patient experience doesn’t begin or end in the exam room — it extends across the entire continuum of care, starting with insurance verification, continuing through the visit itself, and carrying into the follow-up afterward.
Improving Safety Through Observation and Education
One of McPhail’s most impactful initiatives at Fairfax Pediatric Associates was a comprehensive review and standardization of infection control and safety practices. “
Usually I'm the first to raise my hand; I'm the first to give my best ideas as soon as someone asks a question,” she said. “And I learned that when I'm going into a clinic or an organization that's been here for almost sixty years, I really needed to observe what was currently happening and ... approached that with an open mind and closed mouth.”
By first observing workflows, she identified where improvements were needed. “We talked before we even rolled out any changes in expectation,” McPhail said. “We did a lot of staff education. We talked about the why. Why is it even important that Idalis walked around and watched me wash my hands? Why is that important? How does that affect the patient?”
Once expectations were clearly communicated and backed by data, the results followed. “We've seen less employee callouts during flu and sick season,” she said. “We've seen less cross contamination between patient rooms. And so just doing that has definitely impacted not only the employees, but also the patients as well.”
Leading by Learning and Collaboration
McPhail credits much of her success to her willingness to learn from others. “I'm not afraid to admit when I don't know something, and I'm not going to pretend that I am an expert in it,” she said. “So I really leaned on the people who have been within this practice for a really long time. I leaned on their wisdom and I asked questions.”
She believes that connecting the dots between clinical and administrative tasks helps motivate her team. “Coming from the nursing side, we don't talk about finances or the business aspect,” she said. “And so moving over to that administrative side, it's really learning about how the financial and the business side of things impacts the patient directly."
Drawing on her clinical background, McPhail said her guiding principle has always been simple: healthcare is, at its core, people taking care of people.
Redefining Impact in Leadership
For McPhail, the move from clinical to administrative work has expanded her understanding of what it means to make an impact.
“When I was a nurse, I was resuscitating people. I was in it. I gave them medication and I could tell the next day that it helped them,” she said. “On the administrative side, it's less of that instant gratification."
McPhail reflected that her role now allows her to make a broader impact — no longer limited to one-on-one interactions with patients, but influencing the care and experience of every person who walks through the organization’s doors.
She added that her work now includes caring for her team as well as patients. “It's not necessarily Idalis taking care of patients,” she said. “It's Idalis taking care of the people taking care of patients.”
Embracing Change and Continuous Growth
As for the future of healthcare, McPhail remains optimistic. “Healthcare is just ever changing forever and ever. There's always something new and different,” she said. “But that's where I think leaders really thrive in taking this new experience as a new opportunity to learn and grow.”
She emphasized that there will always be opportunities for leaders to step up and adapt. “As long as there's people to take care of, there's going to be a need for healthcare,” she said. “And as long as there's a need for healthcare, there's going to be employees to lead and to manage and to mentor. And so there's always going to be this need for healthcare leadership. That means that there's always going to be something to learn. There's always going to be an opportunity to grow.”
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