The Healthcare Management Council, Inc. Delivering Cost and Quality Benchmarks for your Hospital organization.

The Senior HMC Team

Who we are

We are strategic management consultants who have developed unique analytical tools to address the critical data-handling needs of a rapidly changing industry. Veteran healthcare professionals fill HMC’s roster. We have worked alongside managers, caregivers, and physicians to develop long-term goals and visions for the excellent operation of their organizations. Our senior team includes:

Thomas R. Day
President

John Whittlesey
Principal

Shelley D. Burns
Director of Knowledge Management

Looking to provide a new and flexible way to support performance improvement in healthcare, Tom founded HMC in 1990. Prior to that, he spent 12 years at the high-profile consultancy Bain and Company, where he developed its healthcare and hospital practice. During that time, he realized that available resources for hospital self-improvement were underdeveloped, complicated, and required continual reconfiguration. However, ultimately, such tools would provide great value to an organization seeking excellence.

With this vision, HMC assembled an outstanding team of software developers, hospital executives, and other professionals. Together, they created groundbreaking technologies, resulting in an array of tools that effectively define performance improvement issues. These tools are suited for senior and middle managers alike, and ultimately assist in the direction of internal performance improvement efforts.

A member of Sigma Xi, a scientific honor society, Tom earned a B.A.  in engineering and economics from Brown University. Tom has an M.B.A with distinction in finance from the Wharton School, where he was ranked at the top 5 percent.  At Bain and Company, Tom was a vice president and corporate officer overseeing the firm’s growth from 60 employees to over 1,200 worldwide. He also served as executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer for the Advisory Board Company, where he was responsible for fiscal and operations management. While there, he doubled profits through improved cost discipline, collections, supplier agreements, and new product development.

John Whittlesey is a partner with the Healthcare Management Council, Inc. in Boston, a firm specializing in hospital benchmarking and performance improvement. Since 1990, HMC has built an incredibly rich array of tools to define performance improvement issues, anchor them with senior management and middle managers alike, and ultimately direct internal performance improvement efforts. A member of HMC’s team since 1995, Mr. Whittlesey provides strategic insight and direction to HMC in product development, client management, and ongoing operations. He brings a wealth of hands on hospital operations experience as well, having served in a variety of leadership roles within hospitals and health systems. John holds a B.A. in psychology from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and an M.A. in Hospital and Health Services Administration from in Cincinnati’s Xavier University.

Shelley spent more than 10 years working with a provider before joining HMC in 1993. In her prior career, she oversaw the roll-out of the Total Quality Management (TQM) Initiative at Indiana University Medical Center, a 740-bed academic medical facility. She worked in multiple hospital areas to develop department-specific TQM strategies and performance measures. She also devised TQM staff-training programs, and established a coordinated framework to manage departmental efforts. As director of clinical engineering, she oversaw a 110-bed addition to the Riley Hospital for Children, and a 40-clinic ambulatory care center.

At HMC, Shelley oversees networking and knowledge management for partners using the HMC KnowledgeWeb and interest-specific Knowledge Communities. She holds a B.S. in biology and chemistry from Heidelberg College, an M.S.E in clinical engineering from Case Western Reserve University, and an M.B.A from the University of New Hampshire.