Fixed-scope diagnosis
Is this program recoverable, what is actually wrong, and what should happen in the next 90 days?
Three weeks, one accountable senior reviewer, one written executive answer. The Review establishes what is actually failing: scope, sequencing, decision rights, operating design, adoption, or vendor performance. It also sets out what the next 90 days should contain.
3 weeks
$18,000–$25,000 fixed fee
Principal-led, one accountable senior leader
The fixed price of the decision, not the recovery: what it costs to learn whether the program is worth continuing, before the next seven-figure funding call.
Who this is for
The buyer and the moment.
For a COO, Chief Transformation Officer, CIO, or SVP/VP Operations accountable for a healthcare transformation program that is behind schedule, over budget, or losing executive confidence.
- A transformation or modernization program has missed its second consecutive milestone.
- Workstream status reads green while enterprise delivery risk keeps accumulating.
- A large automation or AI investment is being proposed on top of a workflow nobody has mapped.
- Leadership disagrees about whether the problem is scope, capability, vendor performance, or ownership.
- A new executive has inherited a program and needs an independent read before committing to it.
What a Recovery Review produces
What the engagement produces.
- Executive diagnosis: what is actually wrong, stated plainly
- Program risk map with severity and accumulation path
- Recovery priorities, sequenced and bounded
- Decision-rights and escalation findings
- Operating-model and workflow-ownership gaps
- An explicit read on where AI or automation helps, and where it adds risk
- 90-day action plan with owners, measures, and decision gates
- Executive readout session
How the three weeks run
Week 1
Frame and read in
I confirm the decision leadership needs to make, then agree the program boundary and the sponsor. I read the material that already exists: status packs, issue and risk logs, the business case, vendor agreements, and program artifacts.
Week 2
Interview and trace
I interview the people who know: workstream leads, line owners, the vendor, and the staff whose work actually changes. I trace decisions that are waiting, dependencies that cross workstreams, and where the operating model was assumed rather than agreed.
Week 3
Diagnose, sequence, and read out
I separate symptoms from causes, size what is recoverable, write the diagnosis and the 90-day plan, and present it to leadership. Final artifacts incorporate agreed factual corrections.
What the fee buys. The fixed fee buys the diagnosis and the 90-day action plan. It does not buy the recovery itself. Executing the plan is separate work, and it belongs to whoever is best placed to do it, which is often the internal team.
Scope boundaries
What this engagement is not.
Stated up front so the scope conversation is short and the proposal contains no surprises.
- Scope is one program and one accountable sponsor. I scope additional programs, workstream families, or data remediation separately.
- The Review sets a defensible baseline and target. Committing to a specific denial, cost, turnaround, or revenue number before that baseline exists would not be credible.
- I may recommend internal execution, an existing vendor, a specialist partner, or no further investment. There is no obligation to continue with TKO.
- Standard scope works from existing documentation, reports, de-identified examples, and interviews. Production-system access and PHI handling are agreed separately if they become necessary.
Questions
What buyers ask before committing.
Why three weeks rather than a longer discovery phase?+
Three weeks is enough to interview the people who know, read what already exists, and form an accountable opinion. A longer discovery phase usually reflects the cost of coordinating a team. One reviewer removes that overhead.
What if the honest answer is that the program is not recoverable?+
Then that is the finding, and it is delivered in writing with the reasoning behind it. Knowing early is the point. A recommendation to stop, descope, or restructure is a legitimate outcome of the Review.
Do you need clean data or system access?+
No. Existing status reports, program artifacts, workflow documentation, and stakeholder interviews are sufficient to begin. Sensitive data handling is agreed separately if it becomes necessary.
Is this an AI assessment?+
No. The Review starts with the program and the operating problem. Whether AI is appropriate is one of the questions answered, not the assumption the work begins from.
What happens after the Review?+
Most engagements end with the plan handed to an internal owner. Where leadership wants continued senior accountability through execution, the Fractional Transformation Lead engagement is the usual path.
The other two
If this is not the right vehicle.
Ongoing senior accountability
Fractional Transformation Lead
Who is senior enough, and accountable enough, to actually hold this program together?
3–6 month minimum · $15,000–$25,000 per month
Fractional Transformation LeadFor consultancies and integrators
Specialist Subcontract
Can you put a senior healthcare transformation specialist on this account this quarter?
Engagement-dependent · $175–$250 per hour, subject to engagement
Specialist SubcontractProgram Recovery Conversation
Start with a 45-minute Program Recovery Conversation.
A structured 45-minute working conversation about one program that is behind, over budget, or about to fund automation on top of an unstable workflow.