When healthcare systems search outside their walls for help with critical systems, they’re looking for more than just expertise. They're bringing on a team to help them solve important problems, navigate uncertainty, and deliver meaningful results.
For more than 20 years, I’ve researched healthcare consulting companies and talked with provider executives across the country. Through all those conversations, one thing has consistently stood out about the partnerships that deliver the most value: trust.
Any healthy relationship is built on trust. Trust doesn’t grow overnight, though — so when you’re searching for the right consulting partner, how can you tell if they can earn yours?
I’ve found that there are several qualities a consulting partner that can foster a trusting relationship will have. These partners are the ones that go above and beyond to create real, meaningful value that’s sustainable.
What does a trustworthy consulting partner look like?
They make the effort to understand your business, not just your project.
A few years ago, while researching large system integrators, a healthcare executive described one of their consulting partners in a way that stuck with me. They explained that the company understood their business and challenges so well that they rarely had to be pointed in the right direction.
Instead of just ticking things off their to-do list and waiting for instructions, the consultants proactively brought forward ideas that aligned with the organization’s priorities, even identifying solutions before leadership even asked for them.
They had good ideas and did good work, but even more than that, they invested time to really get to know the organization and understand their goals — improving patient care, enhancing the clinician experience, increasing efficiency, reducing risk, improving financial performance, etc. — and knew how to help them get there.
They made the effort to understand the project in a holistic way and stayed focused on outcomes, providing value where a more traditional consulting company just couldn’t have.
They consistently show up.
Years ago, while researching health IT outsourcing companies, I noticed one company receiving really strong feedback from its customers over and over. Going through all this feedback, I noticed it wasn’t any sort of unique methodology or innovative solution that stood out. It was reliability. They earned their partners’ trust through proactive communication, following through on commitments, and consistency.
And it wasn’t just a one-time fluke. Customers talked about the same things year after year about this company. They experienced stable leadership and account management. The company addressed issues before they became bigger headaches.
And when something didn't go as planned, the team communicated early, owned up to it, and worked quickly to make things right.
Over time, what customers remember is whether their consulting partner was dependable, accountable, and showed up when it mattered.
They are honest and transparent.
Every project encounters challenges — readiness issues, timeline risks, budget concerns, difficult decisions — regardless of your partner’s expertise. A true partner proves their trustworthiness by showing how and when they address those challenges.
Early in a long-term outsourcing engagement, the same company I mentioned in the previous section realized that they had made a pretty big mistake in their pricing assumptions, putting them in a much less favorable position than expected. Definitely not an ideal situation.
This could have been a huge source of conflict between the two organizations. But rather than allowing that to happen, the company’s CEO met directly with their customer's leadership team, acknowledged the mistake, accepted responsibility, and explained the situation honestly. They made it clear that the error was theirs and that the company would absorb much of the financial impact, while also asking the customer to work with them on a solution.
Thankfully, the two ultimately reached a compromise. When the customer described the experience to me, what impressed me the most wasn't the financial outcome, but that, despite this challenge, they still spoke positively about the company. That candor — their willingness to have a difficult conversation and proactively address their mistake — kept the partnership strong.
The mistake didn't build trust. The way the company responded to it did: with honesty, accountability, and a willingness to make things right.
They’re thinking about the future.
A trusted partner doesn't just help solve today's challenges. They help you anticipate (and plan for) tomorrow's opportunities.
Rather than waiting for the next statement of work to start thinking about what's next, the companies that earn their customers’ trust bring them ideas based on the changing healthcare landscape. They connect emerging opportunities — AI and analytics, workforce challenges, workflow optimization and automation, predictive modeling — to their customers’ priorities and help leadership determine which of these to focus time and energy on.
And what builds trust, again, is doing it with honesty and deep understanding. A partner you can trust challenges the status quo and connects innovative solutions to your broader priorities because they know your organization and which changes could make a meaningful difference for you.
They want your success to last.
I remember chatting with a healthcare executive whose organization used a consulting company for a major financial improvement engagement. They helped the organization achieve some pretty impressive results during the project, but their work didn't end there.
To make sure those improvements held, the company actually came back six months later, for little to no additional cost, to check in on how the organization was performing and recommend adjustments if they were needed.
Of course, the executive was very happy with the financial results, but what really stood out was how he talked about the relationship. He saw the company as a true partner, not just because the financial goals were met, but because his organization was also set up to sustain that performance.
The best consulting partners care about your long-term success, not just the project's success, and give you the support you need to achieve it long after the project is over. They help align stakeholders, prepare leaders for key decisions, communicate progress clearly, and navigate organizational complexity.
I’ve seen that support take many forms:
- Giving an executive sponsor a concise update that can be taken directly to senior leadership
- Building the case to make a difficult decision
- Helping operational leaders understand not only what is changing, but why
- Surfacing resistance before it becomes a project issue
- Transferring knowledge so you won’t be unnecessarily dependent on the company once the engagement ends
A true partner recognizes that their commitment extends beyond project execution. Companies that operate this way stop feeling like transactional vendors and start feeling like an extension of the internal team.
Great relationships create great results
Just like a marriage, trust is the foundation of a great partner relationship. It doesn’t grow through kickoff meetings or quarterly reviews alone, however. It's built bit by bit over time through hundreds of small interactions, honest conversations, and commitments kept.
Yes, expertise matters. But expertise alone doesn't create a true partnership. The best consulting partners understand your business, do what they say they’re going to do, tell you what you need to hear, help you anticipate what’s next, and leave your organization stronger than they found it.
That's what shifts a relationship from simply fulfilling a contract to solving real problems and succeeding together.
When choosing an outside partner, don't just ask what they can do. Ask how they work.
Looking for a health IT partner who works this way? We’d love to start a conversation.
