Deirdre Baggot

Possessing more than a decade of experience as a healthcare business strategist and payments expert, Deirdre Baggot has worked in a variety of interesting and challenging positions with companies and organizations across the United States. Currently living in Denver, CO, she has combined a well-rounded college education with industry experience to bring about numerous positive changes to organizations everywhere. With a Bachelor's degree in Nursing from Southern Illinois University, along with an MBA and Ph.D. from Loyola University-Chicago and the University of Colorado, respectively, Deirdre started her healthcare business career upon graduating in 1997.

Beginning with her initial hiring at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Deirdre immediately took on the most complex tasks each day. Hired as a resource coordinator and staff nurse, she was also given the responsibility of being the hospital's administration group manager. In this role, she not only listened to and addressed concerns of employees and patients, but also helped the hospital gain funding needed to obtain additional resources vital to patient care.

However, after six years in this role, Deirdre decided to accept a new position with the University of Michigan Health System. Now a business analyst and administrative manager, she was given the task of improving efficiency, safety, and quality control, among other areas. Yet in only three years, she not only managed to bring about changes that led to improvements in these areas, but also gained Lean/Six Sigma certification, and was presented with an award recognizing her for Outstanding Leadership in Safety.

Nine years removed from college, Deirdre Baggot made yet another bold career decision. Leaving the Midwest, she moved to Denver, CO, where she began a new phase of her career at the Cardiac and Vascular Institute, which is part of SCL Health. Now finding herself facing new challenges as a Senior Administrator, she was supervising 450 employees, and also overseeing such important areas of the organization as payer contracting, marketing, acquisitions, business development, recruiting, and many others. While this may sound daunting, Deirdre excelled during her four years in the position. As a result, she was credited with helping the institute create 11 new clinic locations in the city and its surrounding area.

As her reputation grew within the industry, Deirdre became well-known to many top companies. Because of this, she was offered and accepted a position with GE Healthcare Partners as a Senior Vice-President in charge of healthcare payment systems. Now residing in Los Angeles, she went to work examining how to make these systems more efficient, and eventually created a new payment consulting organization that generated nearly $7 million in annual revenues.

To help others understand the business side of healthcare, Deirdre Baggot can be heard frequently on National Public Radio, where she contributes to such shows as All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Along with this, she has also served as Chairperson for the National Bundled Payment Summit, where she had led the way in helping to find innovative solutions to the many complexities associated with today's modern healthcare payment system.