If your hospital has traditionally utilized consultants from one of the major accounting firms or national consulting firms for strategic planning efforts or one of the other areas previously described, I believe there is an opportunity to significantly improve the quality and cost effectiveness of your consulting expenditures. My experience is that the quality of the major accounting firms' and other national consulting firms' products is less then or equal to that of M.L. Schwartz & Associates, PMMC and Intellicor, Inc. depending upon the consultant assigned to the task.

Beyond the question of quality, the fee schedule of the major companies, even at the middle manager level, is significantly higher than at M.L. Schwartz & Associates and its sister companies. At the partner level, the larger firms tend to have hourly billings more than double that of M.L. Schwartz & Associates.

The obvious result of utilizing M.L. Schwartz & Associates rather than the major accounting firm or national consulting firms with their higher overhead and green consultants is an equal or superior product at a significantly lower cost.

Some additional reasons which make the use of M.L. Schwartz & Associates more desirable then those of the larger consulting firms are:

     • The large firm, because of its cost structure, typically utilizes its most talented individuals strictly to sell its services. It then utilizes inexperienced individuals to implement the project with the occasional visit from the management level salesman. Depending upon the level of expertise of the implementor, it is not unusual for you to received a flawed report from one of these larger firms.

     • The overhead costs of the large firms frequently makes it necessary for them to either grossly overcharge for a small assignment or to turn it down. The overhead costs of M.L. Schwartz & Associates are such that we are able to accept smaller projects yet maintain a reasonable fee schedule for these projects.

     • Frequently the larger firms utilize CPAs, inexperienced MBAs, and inexperienced MHAs to complete health care projects rather than the experienced health care administrators utilized by M.L. Schwartz & Associates. In fact, Mr. Schwartz has been utilized by some hospitals as an extra pair of administrative hands with line authority to complete projects requiring immediate attention when all of the hospital's administrative staff is too busy to complete the specific project. The larger consulting firms typically do not have an individual with the level of experience of Mr. Schwartz capable of devoting the time to an immediate short term administrative project.

     • Because of the vast overhead and pyramid schemes of the major firms they frequently utilize their most green consultants in the field to work the project and convert their most knowledgeable individuals into salesman.

thus, the facility does not buy the large firm's knowledge, but rather its sales force.