Health Care Consultant: Duties, Pay, and How to Become One

Healthcare consultants help healthcare providers and institutions to grow and develop their services while also considering the best outcomes for patients and taking account of regulations, health policies, and budgets. Healthcare consultants are experts in their field with a wealth of experience and education. If you're interested in healthcare systems, then you might consider a career as a healthcare consultant. 

Discover more about healthcare consulting, how much consultants earn, and how to become one yourself. Also, explore flexible, cost-effective courses that can help you gain job-relevant skills today.

What is a healthcare consultant?

Healthcare consultants examine existing processes and provide professional advice and guidance on how to improve them, reduce costs, and improve patient care. With a background in healthcare, a healthcare consultant can offer valuable expertise and training to overcome organisational challenges and improve service delivery. 

What does a healthcare consultant do?

Much like business consultants, healthcare consultants support organisations in improving their processes, maximising their profits, and minimising their costs. Unlike business consultants, though, healthcare consultants work in healthcare settings, such as hospitals, private practices, doctors' offices, nursing homes, and insurance companies.

Organisations hire healthcare consultants when they have a problem that needs solving, or they need to make improvements. The consultant may analyse data and research potential problems to offer solutions, which they might stay and implement or provide as recommendations. 

While exact responsibilities vary according to the needs of the organisation that is using their services, healthcare consultants commonly perform the following duties:

• Consult with healthcare facilities, hospitals and stakeholders to implement new processes.

• Support the launch of new medical products, procedures or drugs.

• Research, detect and analyse any weaknesses or inefficiencies in organisational processes.

• Assess relevant practices and provide insight for improvement based on industry standards and trends.

• Support organisations to reduce costs and increase revenue.

• Prepare business plans for organisations to implement.

• See changes through acting at a senior level.

Healthcare consultant salary

Healthcare consultants make a higher-than-average salary. According to Indeed, healthcare consultants earn an average base salary of £87,876 a year [1]. The exact amount you can expect to earn will likely vary based on your work experience, qualifications, expertise, and geographic location. 

Other job titles for healthcare consultants 

Healthcare consultants may have different titles depending on where they work. Here are some of the other job titles you may find when searching for healthcare consultant positions:

• Healthcare management consultant

• Healthcare strategy consultant

• Senior consultant in healthcare

• Healthcare IT consultant

• Talent acquisition consultant-healthcare

• Nursing consultant

Where do healthcare consultants work?

Healthcare consultants don’t just work in hospitals, as you might expect.

You can find healthcare consultant jobs in a variety of healthcare organisations, including GP practices,  government agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, private clinics, medical technology companies, outpatient care, and nursing and residential care.

How to become a healthcare consultant

A healthcare consultant is a senior position resulting from hard work, years of experience, education, and certifications. You can take various routes depending on where you start in the profession, but specific experience and qualifications are essential for this role. 

1. Earn a bachelor’s degree.

The first step in your career journey to becoming a healthcare consultant is to earn a degree. Ideally, this should be in a relevant field, such as public health, nursing, science, or even a business or IT subject. Be sure to check course outlines to choose a course and the focus on technology in healthcare and healthcare laws to deepen your studies in healthcare management. 

2. Build job experience.

After achieving your educational goals and before embarking on a search for healthcare consultant jobs, you need to get a good amount of experience in the field behind you. People come from all sorts of medical and business professions and, in most cases, have a good level of experience in an administrative or clinical setting. 

If you have no experience in the field, an internship, volunteer work, job shadowing opportunity, or entry-level medical or healthcare position can be of great value.

3. Hone the right skills.

To be an effective healthcare consultant, you'll need to develop a variety of technical and interpersonal skills. While the exact skills you'll need will vary across positions and workplaces, some of the most common skills and knowledge you'll use include:

• Effective communication

• Self-motivation

• Stress management

• Attention to detail

• Interpersonal skills

• Analytical skills

• Knowledge of healthcare structures, laws, and policies

• Decision-making abilities

• Business acumen

• Financial knowledge 

4. Enhance your employability with certifications.

Consider what path you want your consultancy career to take. Specialising in a field or area to consult on can help you hone your skills and consider which qualifications and certifications will benefit you. Whether you decide to be self-employed or work for a company will also impact the type of training you require.

Certifications can be an excellent way to excel in your professional development. Popular choices include:

• Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS)

• RSPH- Level 2 Understanding Health Improvement

• Certified in Public Health (CPH)

5. Consider earning a master’s degree.

To help yourself stand out, consider earning a master’s degree. A bachelor’s degree is generally the requirement to work as a healthcare consultant, but many employers ask for a master’s degree. Even when that isn’t the case, having one can potentially set you apart from other applicants that don’t. 

An excellent graduate programme to consider is an MBA in healthcare management which also provides you with the necessary business skills to work as a consultant. A PhD in healthcare is also beneficial as it allows you to bring your scientific expertise to the role., 

Learn more about healthcare with Coursera

If you are considering a career as a healthcare consultant, start by working towards your bachelor’s degree and gaining some relevant experience. Online courses, meanwhile, can help you gain job-relevant skills in a flexible and cost-effective manner.

In the University of Pennsylvania's Business of Health Care Specialization, offered on Coursera, you'll gain a strong foundational understanding of a healthcare system, along with the basic financial and management skills to make better, well-informed decisions that improve the cost and quality of the healthcare you or your enterprise provides.