Name: Patty Carrel
Area of Expertise: AP, Leadership, People Management, Automation, Process Optimization, Financial Technology Solutions
Patty Carrel has worked for some of the largest and most recognizable brands in healthcare for over 30 years. In her tenure she has been responsible for accounts payable, payroll, accounting and financial reporting, recovery auditing and much more. She has managed environments with many locations while overseeing staffs of over 75 people. At her high-water mark, her teams processed over 170,000 invoices a month which is an enormous volume by any standard.
“It didn’t come easy and it didn’t happen overnight.” Patty assured us with full humility.
To construct a process that could manage such a volume, Patty has had to educate herself over the years and work tirelessly. As she learned to optimize her process, she then began to place more emphasis and effort on building out her technology and automation. This has been a specialty of hers for the last several decades. But more than her accomplishments in process, operations and automation, Patty’s most impressive accomplishment, to date, seems to be her focus and dedication on supporting her team.
I caught up with Patty a couple weeks ago and she was gracious enough to join our spotlight and answer a couple questions
Q: Can you tell me a little about what drives you? What are you passionate about?
A: I’m passionate about driving continual process improvement. This has always been important to me. Early on when I drove the first initiative to consolidate accounts payable there were a lot of opportunities. Eventually we got to a point where we had everything highly automated, but every year we still sit down and come up with quite a few ways to improve efficiency.
Q: In your 30-year career do you think you’ve done it all?
A: No! There is always something more to do. When I approach a job function or an internal procedure, I am always committed to finding new efficiencies through process and automation. I am passionate about driving this level of continued improvement.
Q: Can you think of something, a project, that you are most proud of?
A: Well, actually… when you ask me the question like that, that probably has nothing to do with process or automation. I’m happy with the work I’ve done, but I’m most proud of the relationships I build and the teams I have been a part of. I’m always interested in promoting the perception of accounts payable throughout the larger organization and I always want to make sure all of my teams are fulfilled and happy and that they are proud to come to work.
Q: That’s excellent, I’m sure they appreciate it.
A: It’s just something that’s always been very important to me, and something I’ve worked a lot on.
Q: Those were all the questions I had Patty. Thanks for giving us a quick glimpse and for joining our Leadership Spotlight!
A: My pleasure.