Sarah Bussmann

As someone who grew up and attended college in the Midwest, Sarah Bussmann didn’t necessarily have a burning desire to begin her professional career in, of all places, Las Vegas.

But when you’re a college graduate with a nursing degree, and your then-spouse moves you across the country, you embrace the change. So after completing her studies at the University of Nebraska — and a stint as an operating-room nurse — Bussmann’s family made the trek in 2007 from the Nebraska plains to the Nevada desert, where she landed a nursing position at a relatively new hospital mere miles from the famed Las Vegas Strip. 

At the time, Bussmann was pretty certain she would spend her professional career on the caregiving side of nursing. In fact, she considered returning to school to pursue a second degree in nurse anesthesia.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and Bussmann indeed was back on a college campus, this time as a student at UNLV’s School of Public Health. However, she wasn’t there to learn about anesthesia.

Rather, having recently transitioned from hands-on nurse to the quality assessment and improvement side of healthcare, Bussmann was pursuing her graduate degree in healthcare administration. 

“After relocating to Nevada, I encountered a very different care-delivery landscape, which sparked a growing interest in contributing to solutions that improve care quality, resource availability, and overall system efficiency,” Bussmann says of the impetus for her career shift. “I became especially motivated to expand my understanding of the business and financial aspects of healthcare to better support these efforts.

“As I explored educational paths aligned with this goal, healthcare administration emerged as the best fit — and UNLV was the natural choice, being that it was located in the very community where I live and work.”

As someone with multiple years of professional experience under her belt — in two distinctly different areas of healthcare — Bussmann returned to school with a mindset and approach that differed from most of her fellow classmates. 

For starters, as a working professional, she was able to take the valuable new concepts learned in the classroom and immediately apply them in an everyday setting. At the same time, she was uniquely positioned to provide guidance to those students who went from undergraduate to graduate school with no real on-the-job experience in between.

“As a professional student, I wasn’t just there to gain knowledge — in fact, the coursework often aligned directly with my day-to-day challenges,” Bussmann says. “That created a powerful connection between theory and practice. It also helped me recognize experience gaps in areas that weren’t being addressed — especially for younger students without clinical or administrative backgrounds.

“So it was fulfilling to contribute real-world insights and help shape the perspectives of those particular students. I learned from their fresh perspectives just as they learned from my field experience.”

Since completing her healthcare administration degree a little more than a decade ago, Bussmann has served in multiple high-level leadership roles within the industry (beginning with close to a decade at HealthCare Partners NV, now Intermountain Health). This includes her current position as chief administrative officer and interim chief digital and technology information officer at P3 HealthPartners.

Bussmann joined the Las Vegas-based population health management company in 2017 and has since played a prominent role on two key fronts: achieving the organization’s mission (support healthcare providers with administrative services and care coordination for Medicare Advantage patients) and growth (P3 now operates in four states, serving more than 120,000 Medicare Advantage/ACO Reach patients).

Even as she has climbed the corporate ladder — and her responsibilities have escalated accordingly — Bussmann has never strayed far from UNLV and the School of Public Health.

In fact, around the time she started at P3, Bussmann returned to campus as an adjunct professor. In addition to teaching quality management courses to undergraduate and graduate students in healthcare administration from 2017-21, Bussmann worked closely with faculty and administrative leaders to develop a more comprehensive curriculum to better prepare students entering an ever-evolving industry. 

She also worked alongside faculty on an innovative risk stratification tool that incorporates data from large patient populations. 

“I was curious about the possibilities and reached out,” says Bussmann, who first devised the stratification tool framework for P3 HealthPartners but needed a partner to help test correlations. “Even though I was no longer a student, several faculty members were more than willing to join me on that journey.”

Bussmann’s affinity for and devotion to UNLV hardly ends there. For instance, she helped create an internship program that has funneled dozens of students to Healthcare Partners and P3 in recent years. Some of those Rebels stuck around and are now Bussmann’s colleagues. (“That’s a testament,” she says, “to the power of aligning academic experiences with career readiness.”)

Additionally, Bussmann is a member of the advisory board for the School of Healthcare Administration and Accreditation. And in 2016, she not only founded the UNLV School of Public Health Alumni Association but also served as the inaugural president for the first three years.

“It was a natural extension of my connection to the university, shaped by my time as a graduate student, adjunct professor, and professional partner in the community,” Bussmann says of her decision to connect with fellow alumni and lead the alumni group. “Sharing my knowledge and experiences — not just with students but also with faculty, current peers, and alumni — has been incredibly rewarding.”

In the end, the 2025 School of Public Health Alumna of the Year says this ongoing commitment to her alma mater and its students is about doing her part to help society achieve what should be a shared goal: making sure a system — one that we all lean on eventually — is the best it can possibly be.

“At some point, every one of us will need healthcare,” Bussmann says. “Ensuring we have well-prepared, thoughtful, and passionate professionals delivering that care benefits us all.”

When did you first consider studying and pursuing a career in nursing?

It was during my early years, shaped in part by a personal family experience with cutting-edge healthcare at the University of Minnesota. That experience left a lasting impression on me, opening my eyes to the complexity of healthcare and the power of being in the right place, with the right expertise, at the right time. It sparked a deep curiosity in me to understand what drives both good and poor health outcomes, and why so many patients struggle to get the care they need.

As I grew older, my interest in math and science — especially the intricacies of human biology — naturally aligned with a deeper fascination for pathophysiology. This blend of curiosity, analytical thinking, and desire to make a meaningful impact led me to pursue nursing.

Early in your career, you decided to pivot from nursing to healthcare administration. Did your administrative interests surprise you?

My path in healthcare started in direct patient care, where I was deeply engaged in the clinical side of nursing. However, over time, I began to notice patterns and systemic challenges that extended far beyond the bedside. 

One of the most eye-opening realizations was how often insurance coverage limitations delayed or restricted the care patients needed. It was frustrating to see how external constraints and financials could undermine the clinical decisions and guidelines we knew were best for the patient. 

That disconnect sparked my interest in the administrative and policy side of healthcare. I wanted to better understand and influence the broader systems that shape care delivery.

As I transitioned into leadership roles, I found myself drawn to value-based care models, where the focus shifts from volume to outcomes. The idea that if we simply do the right thing for the patient, everything else will follow, really resonated with me. And in some settings, with strong leadership and a patient-first culture, I’ve seen that promise fulfilled.

At the same time, I’ve also seen the reality of financial pressures and operational constraints that make delivering ideal care incredibly difficult. That tension — between what’s possible and what’s currently feasible — continues to drive my passion for improving healthcare delivery through thoughtful, patient-centered administration.

Of all the academic courses you took at UNLV, which one most set you up for professional success? 

At the time, I didn’t fully realize how pivotal it would become in my career, but my statistics class laid the foundation for one of the most impactful tools I’ve developed: a risk stratification model that I still use today.

This model continues to guide care management interventions and is now used across even larger populations with consistent, reliable results. It’s been validated through multiple post-implementation assessments by external vendors and AI data platforms, confirming its long-term value and accuracy.

Courses in finance and leadership also were critical. They expanded the way I thought about healthcare systems, from evaluating program effectiveness and ROI to making informed decisions in situations where data may be limited or unclear. 

These courses helped foster my strategic thinking and taught me how to confidently operate in the “gray space,” which is often the reality in healthcare. We frequently have to move forward without perfect information — making decisions while “driving in the fog” — and that ability to act decisively while navigating uncertainty has been essential throughout my career.

You spent four years as an adjunct professor at UNLV. Was teaching at the university level a goal or something you stumbled into?

It wasn’t something I initially set out to do. Rather, it was an opportunity that grew organically out of my professional experiences and relationship with UNLV.

It all started when Professor Chris Cochran asked for my feedback on the interns I had hosted, as well as insights into what the internship program might be missing to better prepare students for the realities of the healthcare environment. Through those conversations, it became clear there was a significant gap in how quality, outcomes, and program development were being addressed beyond the hospital setting.

With my background in clinical operations and population health, I had seen firsthand how different the landscape of quality looks outside of traditional hospital settings. Creating and teaching a quality management course felt like a natural extension of my work.

I’ve always loved educating — whether it’s teaching patients, mentoring junior nurses, or coaching team members — so the opportunity to help shape how future healthcare leaders think about quality and program development was incredibly fulfilling. Developing and delivering that course allowed me to blend real-world experience with academic learning in a way that I believe truly resonated with students. It’s something I’m genuinely proud of, and in many ways, I miss it.

Teaching gave me a deeper connection to the future of healthcare, and I absolutely look forward to returning to the classroom when the opportunity and bandwidth arise again.

What is the greatest challenge the healthcare industry faces today?

Without a doubt, it’s the unsustainable rise in the cost of care — particularly in pharmaceuticals and service delivery — while our population health outcomes continue to lag behind other developed countries.

We are spending more money than ever, yet not seeing proportional improvements in the quality, equity, or efficiency of care. At the same time, public policy alone has not delivered (and likely will not deliver) the transformative change needed to reverse these trends.

Equally concerning is the growing number of clinicians — both providers and nurses — choosing to leave the field. Burnout, administrative burden, and misaligned incentives are pushing some of our most essential healthcare professionals out of practice.

This not only threatens care continuity and access, but also the institutional knowledge and mentorship that sustain the next generation of healthcare workers.

How (if at all) can these problems be overcome — or at least mitigated?

It’s going to require a multifaceted, collaborative approach. Real change must involve all stakeholders — providers, health systems, payers, community organizations, and technology partners — working in true alignment. We need better integration across the continuum of care, smarter use of data and digital tools, and payment models that reward prevention, coordination, and long-term value over short-term volume.

No single solution will fix a system this complex. But through collective effort and a willingness to think differently, we can begin to mitigate the damage and rebuild a healthcare system that is more sustainable, equitable, and effective for everyone.

A recent Public Health graduate who is hoping to enjoy a long, successful career in the healthcare industry asks  you for one “must do” and one “must don’t.” What’s your response?

Must do: First, find your mentor. Identify someone you can trust — someone you can discuss challenges with, ask for honest guidance, and continue to learn from over time. Healthcare is complex and constantly evolving, and having a mentor can help you navigate the inevitable highs and lows with perspective and support.

Also, find your passion and keep building on it. Healthcare offers so many avenues — from policy and quality to clinical operations and community health — and you might discover your true fit only by experiencing different sectors of the system.

Must don’t: Don’t expect to be in leadership on Day One. True leadership isn’t about titles; it’s about knowing the work, understanding your team, and being able to support and guide others effectively.

Take the time to learn the ins and outs of the roles you aspire to lead. That hands-on understanding will not only build your credibility but also help you foster strong, high-performing teams when the time comes. Growth takes time — and every experience along the way matters.

What are three tips you would give to someone who is seriously interested in improving their overall physical health?

Improving your physical health isn’t just about exercise — it’s a multifactorial process that involves your mind, your habits, and your environment. With that in mind:

1. Don’t overlook your mental health. Physical strength starts with mental strength. Believing in yourself, setting realistic goals, and staying consistent are all rooted in your mindset. Being “strong” isn’t just about how much you can lift or how far you can run. It’s about your ability to stay committed, bounce back from setbacks, and push through self-doubt.
2. Nutrition matters — sometimes even more than the workout. You can’t exercise off a poor diet. What you eat fuels everything, from your energy levels to your ability to recover. Moderation is key, but don’t deprive yourself. That isn’t fun or sustainable, and enjoying what you eat is just as important as making healthy choices.
3. Find movement that brings you joy. Physical activity shouldn’t feel like punishment; it should be something you look forward to. Whether it’s walking, swimming, dancing, hiking, or strength training, the best kind of exercise is the one you’ll keep doing. The more you enjoy it, the more likely you are to stay consistent and make it part of your lifestyle.

Ultimately, physical health is about sustainability. Set small, meaningful goals, celebrate progress, and remember: True health is a lifelong journey, not a quick fix.