Gerald Mannikarote ⋅ Houston, TX dMann Training Technologies ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Stephen,
I'm glad to hear that you are considering consulting.
Lots of great advice here.
The only thing I would suggest is start a blog and do a weekly or bi-weekly post. This will help you establish yourself on the net and you can link that to your website.
Hope this helps,
Jerry

Jim Jones ⋅ Getzville, NY Fidelis Care ⋅ 35 years experience

Good Morning Stephen, Thank you for your service. I would add that you should update your LinkedIn profile. Then you should conduct a series of informational interviews to determine what the best fit is for you. This will also enhance your network and may open some opportunities as people can put a face to a name. As you are hearing, health care and health care consulting is fast growing. Have you networked at your current hospital assignment?

Theo Posselt ⋅ Berkeley, CA Deloitte ⋅ 15 years experience

There are a lot of good answers here.

One comment I'd make is that generally 'consulting firms' consult on the business side of healthcare - billing, revenue, etc - as well as obviously the technology (including Electronic Medical Records). I'd look for ways that your experience prepares you to help clients in those areas. One obvious client is the government itself, including the VA; perhaps you have some special knowledge from your experience that would be very valuable there.

Regards,
Theo

Andrea Gnilka ⋅ Springfield, VA Deloitte ⋅ 5 years experience

Hi Stephen,

I work in Federal healthcare consulting for Deloitte Consulting LLP, and we have ample opportunities for you to get your career started in Federal health consulting. Both experience and education will be important considerations in the process, but it looks as though you have ample experience in the field that would be valuable in starting your career in the health consulting sector. Please see the jobs section of this site for more information.

Best,

Andrea

Jennifer Polhemus ⋅ Santa Monica, CA Precision Research (self-employed) ⋅ 25 years experience

Although not in healthcare, I have have been in consulting for decades. Think (and read) about whether the consulting paradigm is a good fit for your skills & personality. Are you good at adjusting your approach & communication to fit new partners & projects? Do you like working on multiple projects, w/different partners, different details, different everything? How will you feel when you have devoted much of yourself to a project and then it ends, or goes away (lack of funding, etc.)? Dig deep about the "why" of consulting. It might very well be a great fit for you, but now is the time to explore options. Spend some time at the library & then read, read, read. Subscribe to some consulting blogs. Read "Fast Company" every month. Take a StrengthsFinder (Gallup) test (online, less than $25) & match your results with consulting. Best wishes!

Richard Cloud ⋅ Forest Lake, MN IBM ⋅ 30 years experience

Mr. Hurt,

I work for IBM in our Healthcare Consulting Practice and we are aggressively hiring qualified senior candidates. I would recommend that you go to www.ibm.com and search for healthcare related jobs to determine which ones might be the best fit. Happy to discuss with you if you like. Thanks for your service.

Barron Evans ⋅ Ann Arbor, MI Customer Experience Change Management ⋅ 30 years experience

Foremost, thank you for your service.

Depending on how you want to position the practice out of the gate, I would explore getting a 'CHBC' designation (Certified Healthcare Business Consultant) - provided via the National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants http://www.nschbc.org/.

And if your time/resources allow it, perhaps attend their 10th Annual Conference May 11-13 in Palm Springs at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort.

Hope this works out for you; best wishes for success. ~BARRON~

Mark Hank ⋅ Burnsville, MN Saunders Therapy Centers ⋅ 17 years experience

Stephen,

I have worked in health care for twenty years, in many different areas of a large integrated care network in Minnesota. I would suggest that you may want to start by taking your experience as a corpsman and look for ways to transfer that to the civilian health care delivery systems. Depending on where you live, or want to live, I would look at the large systems such as Kaiser Permanente, Allina Health in Minnesota, Advocate in the Chicago area, etc. Look at their employment sections and peruse these to see how you could best transfer your skills. Since you have an MBA, you'd be a candidate for many management jobs. Also, as Rajesh suggested, check with the larger consulting firms he mentioned.

Hope this helps. And I sincerely thank you for your service to our country.

Mark

Rajesh Sahni ⋅ Bridgewater, NJ IBM ⋅ 25 years experience

Stephen,

Healthcare consulting is among the top emerging trends in the marketplace.

There are two primary ways to begin a new consulting effort. First go through your Rolodex and see which clients would agree to give you first order. Second formalize and write about what services you want to offer. Do you want to focus on Technology enablement, revenue growth or cost cutting initiatives?

Lastly you need to decide you want to work as an independent consultant or hire a team to provide these services working with you. For solo independent, I know Deloitte, IBM, PriceWaterHouseCoopers are always looking for Healthcare Consultants.

Let me know how it goes. It may take 3-6 months to formalize your approach and effort.

Thank You
Rajesh