Deb has been transforming medical care delivery since her career began. She’s established rural health clinics, grown multi-specialty physician practices and facilitated countless strategy sessions that have helped clients achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Deb’s great love is to pass this knowledge along via public speaking with humor, practical reality and a commitment to provide resources that transform how care is delivered. As a past board chair of MGMA, she understands the complexity of the healthcare system and knows how to work in it without making it more complicated. Her strengths lie in strategic planning, governance, and leadership coaching.
When Debra began this career path in the late 70’s, she served as a medical assistant for a small family practice. Later, she transitioned to practice administration, helped establish a 45+ physician independent family practice and then moved into administering a public hospital district. Her initiatives stabilized the organization from a projected $750,000 deficit to a savings of more than $1 million in two years.
Throughout her career, Debra has played to her strengths as an agent of change, working in primary care as well as specialty clinics, hospital-owned practice networks and independent practices. She excelled via interim management roles that empowered staff, providers, and management through clarity and accountability. Her workflow improvements move organizations toward innovative business strategies.
When asked what she does for a living, she replies, “I’m in the business of care delivery so doctors can be in the practice of medicine.”
Debra excels in change management roles that quickly push practices to success they never thought possible. Transformation, she believes, moves vision into action — an active process with a lot of heavy lifting – and no time to stand still. In 2015, Debra joined forces with her long-time colleagues, Michelle Wier, Irv Barnett, and Nancy Babbitt to found Vision to Value (V2V) practice management consultants.
Debra’s other great love is to educate others on what she’s learned from her forty-year career to include serving as Board Chair of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). Debra regularly speaks to practice administrators and providers throughout the country. She considers her presentations and workshops as a way to “pay it forward,” helping transform the field medical practice management as well as the individuals who lead this innovative profession.
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