Healthcare strategy is common. Effective delivery is rare.
I help healthcare organisations turn growth plans into operational reality — across patient access, service design, commercial models, and UK ↔ US expansion.
Built inside healthcare. Operator first. Consultant second.
Clarendum is led personally by Ian McPhee — a senior healthcare operator who has spent his career running, scaling, and rebuilding the functions that growth depends on.
Clarendum Consulting Ltd is a new company. Ian's operating record is not. Senior operator-led consulting, without the traditional consultancy overhead.
- Former Vice President of Operations at Optum Behavioural Care, part of United Health Group
- Built and scaled national patient access operations supporting 236 clinics across all 50 states
- Led international expansion for a boutique behavioural health provider across the UK, United States, and Canada
Strategic, operational and growth challenges that shape organisational success.
Unlocking capacity without adding headcount
Identify operational friction, redesign workflows and improve utilisation to increase throughput using existing resources.
Entering the US healthcare market
Cutting through payer, regulatory, and buyer complexity to a credible entry plan.
Patient access bottlenecks
Closing the gap between demand and booked, retained patients.
Referral and conversion challenges
Designing the intake, triage, and follow-up that actually convert enquiries.
Operational scaling problems
Building workflows, capacity, and capability that hold up as volume grows.
Investor readiness and operational due diligence
An operator's view of the business behind the financial model.
New service line launches
Standing up clinical and operational delivery from concept to live service.
Fixing services that aren't performing
Rapidly identifying bottlenecks, stabilising delivery and restoring operational performance.
Problems solved, not activities sold.
Enter and scale in the US healthcare market
Move from interest to a credible US entry plan — payer routes, regulatory realities, buyer mapping, and a sequencing decision the board can act on.
Turn demand into revenue
Close the gap between enquiries and booked, retained patients with pricing, packaging, partnerships, and conversion-focused commercial design.
Make growth operationally workable
Patient access, workflows, capacity, and service design that hold up as volume increases — without breaking clinical quality or team capacity.
Senior operating support without a full-time hire
Fractional COO, interim operations leadership, and board-level input during growth, expansion, or transition — direct access, no junior team.
Practical thinking for healthcare operators.
Drawn from UK and US operating experience — written for founders, executives and investors.
UK to US healthcare expansion readiness scorecard
Eight operating dimensions to score Red, Amber or Green before US entry capital is released.
Read the article →Behavioural health operations: why growth plans fail at the clinic door
Access, clinician utilisation, referral conversion and operating model design.
Read the article →Healthcare capacity is usually a matching problem, not a headcount problem
Where capacity hides and what to fix before recruiting.
Read the article →Patient access is a growth function, not an admin function
Where enquiry-to-appointment leakage actually sits.
Read the article →What the work usually looks like.
The decisions Clarendum is built around, and how an engagement is typically shaped to answer them.
These are illustrative engagement shapes, not client case studies. Clarendum client work is confidential and will only be published with written permission.
Digital Mental Health Platform Evaluating US Expansion
- Situation
- A UK digital mental health business with strong traction needed to decide whether, when, and how to enter the US.
- How Clarendum would approach it
- Market sizing, payer and buyer mapping, regulatory review, and a structured go/no-go framework with sequencing options.
- What you would receive
- A clear, evidence-backed recommendation and a phased entry plan the board could act on.
Private Healthcare Provider Redesigning Patient Access
- Situation
- Strong demand was being lost between enquiry and booking, capping the growth of an otherwise healthy service.
- How Clarendum would approach it
- End-to-end pathway mapping, intake and triage redesign, capacity modelling, and operational performance metrics.
- What you would receive
- Improved conversion, shorter time-to-care, and a more scalable access function ready for further growth.
Investor Conducting Operational Diligence on a Healthcare Asset
- Situation
- An investor needed an operator's view on a healthcare asset beyond the financial diligence pack.
- How Clarendum would approach it
- Operational, clinical capacity, and access-pathway diligence with a clear summary of risks, upside, and execution requirements.
- What you would receive
- A sharper investment thesis and a 100-day operating plan to de-risk post-close execution.
- Focused diagnostic engagements
- From £5,000
- Strategic and transformation engagements
- Typically from £10,000
- Fractional and advisory support
- By agreement, monthly
Every engagement is scoped to the decision, complexity, and level of support required. You receive a written scope with deliverables, timeline and fee before any work starts, and the senior person who scoped it is the person who delivers it.
An operator on your side — not a deck and a junior team.
Operator first, consultant second
Recommendations are shaped by what it actually takes to run, scale, and deliver healthcare services.
Direct access to Ian
You work with the senior person who scoped the engagement. Every conversation, every deliverable.
No junior consultants
No layered project teams writing decks they've never lived. One senior operator, focused on your decision.
Experience scaling healthcare services
236-clinic national network, 150+ person patient access organisation, UK ↔ US service growth.
Grounded in operational reality
Advice is tested against capacity, workforce, clinical quality, and unit economics — not just market opportunity.
Built for healthcare leadership
Founders, executives, and investors who need a senior thinking partner, not a procurement process.
The scale Ian has operated at.
Delivered by Ian in previous executive roles, not as Clarendum client engagements.
Clinics supported across the US in a national behavioural health network.
Person patient access organisation built and scaled from the ground up.
US states covered by the operations function led at Optum Behavioural Care.
Healthcare growth, expansion, and operating model design across both systems.
Clarendum is built for:
- Healthcare and healthtech founders
- Mental health and behavioural health organisations
- Private healthcare providers
- Digital health and care businesses
- Private equity and investors evaluating healthcare operations
- PE-backed and founder-led healthcare businesses scaling services
Common questions.
If your question isn't here, the fastest answer is usually a short intro call.
What does Clarendum Consulting do?+
Clarendum is an operator-led healthcare advisory practice helping organisations grow, scale, and expand across the UK and US - covering commercial strategy, healthcare operations, patient access, and UK ↔ US healthcare expansion.
Who is Clarendum for?+
Healthtech founders, mental and behavioural health organisations, private healthcare providers, digital health businesses, and investors evaluating healthcare opportunities or preparing for growth and expansion.
How is Clarendum different from a traditional strategy consultancy?+
Clarendum is operator first, consultant second. Ian McPhee has actually run and scaled healthcare operations as a former VP of Operations at Optum Behavioural Care, leading a 236-clinic national network and building a 150+ person patient access centre - so plans are shaped by execution experience, not just frameworks.
How much do engagements cost?+
Focused diagnostic engagements start from £5,000. Strategic and transformation engagements typically start from £10,000. Fractional and advisory support is available by agreement on a monthly basis. Every engagement is scoped to the decision, the complexity, and the level of support required, and you receive a written scope with deliverables, timeline and fee before any work begins.
Do you work with both UK and US healthcare organisations?+
Yes. Clarendum specialises in supporting organisations operating in, or expanding between, the UK's and US healthcare systems - including the commercial, operational, and regulatory realities of each.
Is Clarendum Consulting a new company?+
Yes, and deliberately so. Clarendum Consulting Ltd is a newly established UK company, registered in England and Wales with company number 17223048. Its founder, Ian McPhee, has more than 15 years of healthcare operating experience gained in executive roles at other organisations. Clients are buying senior operating experience directly, without the overhead of a large consultancy.
Does Clarendum publish client case studies?+
No. Clarendum client work is confidential and is only published with the client's written permission. The examples shown on this website relate to Ian's previous executive roles and are labelled as such - they are not Clarendum client engagements.
Who will actually do the work?+
Ian McPhee, personally. Clarendum is a senior-led practice with no junior consulting team, so the person who scopes the engagement is the person who delivers it.
Need a clear plan before making your next move?
Book an introductory call to discuss your goals, current challenges, and where Clarendum may be able to help.
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