Will Weider, CIO, Ministry Health Care & Affinity Health System
Somewhere along the way, the word consulting in our field changed. Today, consulting is about finding available freelancers on a just-in-time basis. The “consultant” is nothing more than a recruiter with a billing back office. Some consultants claim they screen the candidates, but there is no way that can be done effectively given the turnaround time to place people.
Furthermore, the consulting firms take very little accountability for the consultants they place. But the question is: how can they when their experience is so varied and there is no standard for good service?
When I hire a consultant, part of what I am looking for is a well defined way of doing various types of work. I want the consulting group reviewing each engagement and revising their approach to work based on the lessons learned from each engagement. If I am going to hire a project manager, I want that person trained in the firm’s project management approach. If I hire someone to assist with a selection, I want that firm to have a clear written means to conduct IT selections. I don’t want someone that might have participated in one of these activities a while back and will try to mimic one, much the way a child mimics an adult.
Of course, that means a large investment in the people who develop these methodologies and take the time to train permanent staff. That seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird. Nobody has staff — they have home-based employees working the phones looking for talent to place.
dherman says
Will, you’re right. There has been a significant increase in the number of staff augmentation firms that “dial for dollars”, in a sense. In those business models, there are large numbers of highly commissioned recruiters that search Monster, LinkedIn and other tools for key terms like Epic & certification – and clients receive numerous un-vetted resumes. This business model puts the risk of the quality of the consultant on the client. And those types of firms do serve a purpose in providing certain in-demand skillsets in this market.
However, please don’t be disillusioned that the traditional type of consulting firm no longer exists – ones that do what consultants are engaged to do: identify problems, define and implement solutions using a structured but customized approach that takes unique circumstances into account, collaborate with colleagues and clients, commit to change client organizations in meaningful ways, transfer knowledge, and move on. Although there may only be a handful of these in the industry today, these firms work very hard to vet candidates to qualify their expertise and consulting abilities, and they pride themselves on the results delivered to the client, which requires strong oversight on engagement quality. These firms also invest significantly in professional development for their associates and develop structured methodologies so associates across the organization can apply collective knowledge using consistent, proven approaches.
It’s really up to the client to determine what their need is and partner with a consulting firm with the business model that fits their needs. If an organization needs a person with a specific skillset to fill a hole on its team and is willing to manage and oversee quality of deliverables and work, the staff augmentation model can work well.
If a healthcare organization needs a strategic partner to manage a large-scale project or program, facilitate a vendor selection, deploy a repeatable method for developing and updating standardized clinical content (e.g. order sets), or help set the go-forward IT strategy to support emerging models for ACO-based reimbursement, a more traditional consulting model is the preferred approach.