Ms. Raftery is Associate Chair for Operations for the Department of Medicine.
What is your expertise?
Through 25 years of health care practice and management, I have had the opportunity to develop a strong knowledge base across clinical information systems, clinical practice, professional billing, university finance and HR, hospital operations.
What is your current role in the Department of Medicine?
As Associate Chair of Operations for the Department of Medicine, I will be working closely with the leadership team, the central finance office and the divisions to understand and improve our financial performance and to support the infrastructure through which we pursue work across our missions. Medicine is large and complex. We are developing centralized expertise to support the Divisions through financial reporting, strategic analyses, and collaborative management to strengthen our ability to respond nimbly and strategically in this rapidly evolving practice. Much of my focus is informed decision making and to support implementation of strategies that help us achieve the vision that has been put forth by Dr. Falk.
What current project or initiative at UNC are you involved in that you are excited about?
For the past year we have worked together as a group across Rex and the Medical Center (interventional cardiologists, analysts, operational leaders and project managers) to improve the value of Percutaneous Coronary Interventions. We have developed a solid understanding of our costs and current quality metrics and are preparing to launch an interactive dashboard which will allow review of costs and quality metrics across providers and sites. This has been a very collaborative project, with fantastic leadership by Carol Lewis, Dr. Prashant Kaul and Dr. Joel Schneider from Rex. Just being in the room together to discuss differences in practice patterns has resulted in positive change. We’re doing it right: share knowledge, improve care, improve efficiency, reduce cost.
Where is an interesting place you’ve traveled?
This past May, my husband and I went to Ireland for a ten day hiking trip with REI. Perfect balance of hiking, great food/drink, wonderful people and beautiful country. I learned that Sheep are marked with spray paint so you know to which farmer they belong. We hiked to the point furthest East in Europe and gazed across the Ocean. Really wonderful.