Step aside profit, the No. 1 goal in Jennifer Duff’s business is to see her clients get healthy.
The 33-year-old University of British Columbia-trained nurse was recently named Providence Health Care’s director of mental health, leading a program that handles 85% of the most severe mental-health emergency patients in Vancouver.
“I never thought I would be doing what I’m doing at the age I’m doing it,” Duff said.
Her decision to get into the public health-care business was driven by a passion for tangible results.
Duff joined Providence in 2006 on a contract basis after spending a few years as a registered nurse at Penticton Regional Hospital and the BC Women’s Hospital.
She quickly excelled at her job, and in 2007 was named operations leader of the general surgery and orthopedic nursing units at St. Paul’s Hospital.
A year later, she became the operations leader for the maternity services and neonatal intensive-care unit.
While there, Duff managed an operating budget in excess of $7 million, and managed to significantly reduce overtime expenditures and sick time among employees.
Although the public sector has a reputation for moving slowly, Duff said her job is anything but.
“In my view it’s highly complex, often chaotic, and if you’re not just as motivated as somebody who works in the private sector we don’t get things done,” she said. “I’m driven by being fiscally responsible and providing the best care I can provide.” •
