Connie Lee

About Connie Lee

I am a board certified health care executive with over a decade of experience working in the Nation’s largest integrated healthcare system at the facility, regional, and national levels. My dedication and experience with providing patients with access to the important care and services they need continued outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and now with UCLA Health. UCLA Health runs and operates over 270 outpatient clinics located in Southern California with over outpatient encounters annually. I am responsible for leading the Patient Access Organization with the ultimate goal to get the patient to the right provider at the right time. I have operational oversight over the Patient Communication Center, within the Patient Access Organization at UCLA Health, that serves as the centralized unit to providing patients with the critical access to services they need. Additionally, my team supports a centralized scheduling template management strategy as well as optimizing and building digital scheduling pathways for patients. I have demonstrated success developing innovative programs, leading key learning initiatives, cultivating nationwide partnerships, planning and forecasting, and implementing new health care programs. My personal passion is in advancing translational care activities where I built the program at the Veterans Health Administration to effectively bridge the gap between research, clinical care, data science and administration to provide next generation care for our Nation’s Veterans. I created the Big Data Scientist Training Enhancement Program (BD-STEP) at VA to meet this goal, and continue to work in my current capacity towards modernizing the healthcare system for 21st century care delivery while maintaining, maximizing and improving the system’s efficiency.

Experience

1. Senior Director, Patient Access

   UCLA Health

   Dec 2023 — Present · US

   As Senior Director for Patient Access I am responsible for leading and managing change initiatives designed to transform and improve patient access and experience with access to care, across UCLA Health. I work closely with leadership across the enterprise to establish and facilitate a UCLA Health access strategy and lead a patient engagement vision that produces seamless, connected, and coordinated access across multiple touch points and services for patients and referring physicians. I am responsible for delivering an exceptional experience through the alignment of people, process and technology across the patient access continuum. My oversight responsibility includes the Patient Communication Center operations, the digital patient experience and all support services related to patient access. I actively partner with stakeholders across the organization to create and sustain programs enhancing access to care, including development of short and long term strategies around patient access to UCLA Health. My ultimate goal is to lead the organization to “getting the patient the right services at the right time by the right provider.”

Education

• Yale University

  Master of Public Health - MPH, Public Health

  2004 — 2006

• The Johns Hopkins University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Public Health

  2000 — 2004