JAMA study finds $7.8B in hospital consulting spending yielded no measurable improvements

Summary

A new study published in JAMA provides the first large-scale empirical analysis of hospital spending on management consultants. Over a decade, nonprofit hospitals spent $7.8 billion on consulting services, yet researchers found no meaningful improvements in finances, staffing, operations, or patient outcomes. The paper challenges the widespread use of consultants in healthcare, suggesting they may deliver neither the benefits nor the harms often attributed to them, while highlighting the outsized influence consulting firms have gained in the American healthcare system.