Nancy Dougherty, director of patient financial services
On Wednesday, May 18, the day that his former colleague Nancy Dougherty died, Thomas McCormick, vice president for patient accounting at Penn Medicine, sent a note to his staff.
On Wednesday, May 18, the day that his former colleague Nancy Dougherty died, Thomas McCormick, vice president for patient accounting at Penn Medicine, sent a note to his staff.
"For 34 years, she gave her heart and soul to the place she loved and the people in it. . . .
"Nobody had a bigger heart for her staff. If she worked for you, she was fiercely loyal and highly dedicated."
And, McCormick wrote, "if you knew Nancy, you know she was a fighter. She would fight for family, friends and the people she worked with - her other family."
Nancy Dougherty, 58, of North Wildwood, who retired in 2014 as managing director of patient financial services at Penn Medicine, died of lung cancer at home.
A sister, Kathleen Dougherty, said Nancy Dougherty's job, in which McCormick was her boss, was helping patients "with insurance, to see what was covered and facilitating admission into the hospital."
Nancy Dougherty had lived for 25 years in Clementon and most recently in North Wildwood.
In the winter of 2014-15, Kathleen Dougherty said, Nancy Dougherty moved to the Shore "to see if she could last the winter, to see if this was where she wanted to be."
"But in May of 2015, she was diagnosed with her illness."
A graduate of John Bartram High School in Philadelphia, she worked for a few years in the accounts payable section of the Southwest Globe Times, a community newspaper in Philadelphia.
She joined Penn in August 1980 and retired in May 2014.
"She was always in financial counseling," said Kathleen Dougherty, a managing director of patient accounting at Penn Medicine.
Kathleen has been there for 25 years, and the third of three Dougherty sisters, Tricia Ware, a director of information technology at Penn Medicine, has been there for 30 years.
Nancy Dougherty had been a board member of the University of Pennsylvania Federal Credit Union since 2011.
Besides her sisters, Ms. Dougherty is survived by her mother, Rita, three brothers, and special friend Scott Nolan.
A visitation was set from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, May 22, and from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday, May 23, at the Egizi Funeral Home, 119 Ganttown Rd., Washington Township, before an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass at St. Agnes Church, 701 Little Gloucester Rd., Blackwood. Interment is to be private.
Donations may be sent to Lockbox 1352, P.O. Box 8500, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa. 19178-1352.
Condolences may be offered to the family at egizifuneral.com.
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