Surgical Directions

What Surgical Directions does

Surgical Directions is a privately held, Chicago-based healthcare consulting firm founded in 1999 that serves more than 500 hospitals and health systems across the United States. The firm operates a clinician-driven advisory model pairing clinically active physicians, CNOR-certified nurses, and business consultants with client counterparts, applying a peer-to-peer triad approach to break down operational silos in surgical services.

The company's offerings center on six consulting service lines — Perioperative Optimization, Anesthesiology Solutions, Sterile Processing Optimization, Supply Chain & Materials Management, Radiology Solutions, and Workforce Solutions — combined with Merlin™, a proprietary AI-powered predictive analytics platform available in tiered subscriptions (Core, Block, Pro, RN Staffing, Anesthesiology) that delivers OR utilization, block scheduling, heatmapping, surgeon scorecards, and predictive staffing analytics beyond standard EMR reporting. Workforce Solutions extends the offering into interim leadership staffing for anesthesia, OR, and sterile processing roles on 6-12 month assignments.

Surgical Directions monetizes through custom-quoted, results-focused consulting engagements (often with guaranteed financial outcomes) and through Merlin™ software subscriptions, supported by interim leadership placements billed as professional services. The firm goes to market via direct enterprise sales to hospital COOs, CFOs, and surgical services leadership, complemented by an active thought-leadership program including the Scrub In podcast, whitepapers, case studies, and industry events. Customers include academic medical centers (NYU, University of Michigan, Boston Children's), large systems (HCA Healthcare, Hackensack Meridian, RWJ Barnabas), and mid-sized regional hospitals, with named outcomes including 92% first-case-on-time-start rates, 20% turnover-time reductions, $8M in supply-chain savings, and over $2M in anesthesia-contract savings.

Name

Surgical Directions

Legal name

Surgical Directions

Website

https://surgicaldirections.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Surgical Directions is a Chicago-based healthcare consulting firm serving 500+ US hospitals and health systems with clinician-led perioperative, anesthesia, sterile processing, supply chain, radiology, and workforce consulting, supported by its proprietary Merlin™ AI-powered predictive analytics platform and interim leadership staffing.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Consulting Services

NAICS

General Medical and Surgical Hospitals (62211)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Orthopedic, Prosthetic & Surgical Appliances & Supplies (3842)

akta.pro primary industry

Surgical, Perioperative & ERAS Pathway Tools (HLACAGAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Operating Room Integration & Surgical Informatics (OR control, documentation, connectivity) (HLAHADAE)

Keywords

• Perioperative consulting services
• Surgical services consulting
• Healthcare operational consulting
• Predictive analytics healthcare
• Anesthesiology consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Healthcare Consulting Services: Professional consulting engagements providing perioperative optimization, anesthesiology solutions, sterile processing optimization, supply chain management, and radiology solutions. Includes diagnostic assessments, implementation support, and ongoing performance measurement. Offered as results-focused interventions or retainer models for ongoing support.
2. Merlin™ Predictive Analytics Software: Proprietary analytics platform licensed to healthcare organizations. Available in multiple tiers (Core, Block, Pro, RN Staffing, Anesthesiology) with varying feature sets for perioperative optimization and staffing needs.
3. Interim Leadership Staffing: Placement of clinical leaders including anesthesiologists, OR Directors, OR Managers, OR Educators, SPD Managers, SPD Educators for interim assignments (6-12 months duration) throughout the United States. Travel reimbursed.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Surgical Directions is a clinician-driven healthcare consulting firm that delivers perioperative, anesthesia, sterile processing, supply chain, radiology, and workforce optimization engagements to hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory surgery centers. Engagements combine physician-nurse-business consultant teams with the proprietary Merlin™ AI-powered predictive analytics platform, offered as results-focused interventions or ongoing retainer support with guaranteed financial outcomes.

Product overview

Surgical Directions is a clinician-driven healthcare consulting organization offering a proprietary technology platform (Merlin™) combined with specialized consulting services. The core product is Merlin™ — an AI-powered predictive analytics software for operating room optimization. This platform is complemented by six consulting service lines: Perioperative Optimization, Anesthesiology Solutions, Sterile Processing Optimization, Supply Chain & Materials Management, Radiology Solutions, and Workforce Solutions. The company also produces educational content including the Scrub In Podcast. Services are delivered through a clinician-led advisory model combining physician, nurse, and business consultants with data analytics to drive financial and operational improvements for healthcare clients.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Merlin™: Surgical Directions' proprietary AI-powered predictive analytics software solution that provides data analytics for operating room optimization, block scheduling, heatmapping, and patient throughput analytics.

Products and services

• Perioperative Optimization Healthcare consulting services focused on improving surgeon access, OR efficiency, site-of-care optimization, and quality of care through customizable, nationally tested solutions for hospitals and health systems.
• Anesthesiology Solutions Consulting services that help hospitals optimize anesthesia departments, improve OR efficiency and surgeon satisfaction, and enhance patient outcomes through aligned incentives, staffing models, and protocols.
• Sterile Processing Optimization Consulting services to develop hospital sterile processing departments by enhancing OR collaboration, infection control protocols, facility efficiency, and compliance standards.
• Supply Chain & Materials Management Consulting services that improve supply chain and materials management processes in surgical environments, reducing costs, eliminating waste, and enhancing operational efficiency.
• Radiology Solutions Radiology consulting services addressing staffing shortages and financial pressures through leadership development, predictive staffing models, and hybrid coverage approaches for hospitals and health systems.
• Workforce Solutions Workforce management services including interim leadership staffing for physician, nurse, and sterile processing positions, plus coaching, mentoring, training, recruitment and retention planning, and cultural transformation consulting for healthcare organizations.
• Merlin™ Predictive Analytics Surgical Directions' proprietary AI-powered predictive analytics software that delivers presentation-ready data visualizations for operating room optimization, including block scheduling, heatmapping, surgeon scorecards, anesthesia contract comparison, and patient throughput analytics, licensed to healthcare organizations in tiered subscriptions.

Quantifiable outcome

• More than 1 million patients impacted in 2025 through operational, clinical, and financial improvements
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers25 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Qventus: Qventus offers an AI-based perioperative and inpatient operations platform that automates OR scheduling, discharge planning, and capacity management for hospitals. Like Surgical Directions' Merlin, it competes directly on predictive analytics for surgical services.
• LeanTaas: LeanTaas builds AI-powered software for hospital capacity, staffing, and surgical scheduling optimization. It is the most direct competitor to Merlin, serving similar hospital customers with predictive analytics for perioperative throughput and patient flow.
• Hospital IQ (Bain & Company): Hospital IQ provides an AI-driven perioperative and operational performance platform for hospitals and health systems. Acquired by Bain, it overlaps directly with Surgical Directions' Merlin analytics and perioperative optimization focus.

Broad incumbents

• Health Catalyst: Health Catalyst provides healthcare data and analytics platforms along with performance improvement services for hospitals. While broader than perioperative, it competes for analytics and consulting dollars within the same hospital operations budgets as Surgical Directions.
• Kaufman Hall (Vizient): Kaufman Hall provides management consulting and analytics to hospitals and health systems, including strategy, financial planning, and performance improvement. It competes for the same hospital executive consulting budget as Surgical Directions.
• Huron Consulting Group: Huron's healthcare practice delivers performance improvement consulting across clinical, operational, and revenue cycle domains for hospitals and health systems. Its OR and workforce offerings overlap with Surgical Directions' consulting service lines.
• Press Ganey: Press Ganey is a large healthcare performance and patient experience analytics firm with surgical and perioperative benchmarking products. It competes with Merlin on data-driven OR performance measurement and reporting.
• Premier Inc. Premier is a large healthcare performance improvement company offering consulting, analytics, supply chain, and benchmarking services to hospitals. It competes broadly with Surgical Directions across perioperative consulting and supply chain optimization but at significantly larger scale.
• Optum Advisory (UnitedHealth Group): Optum Advisory provides large-scale healthcare consulting and managed services to hospitals, payers, and health systems. Its scope is much broader than Surgical Directions, but it competes for performance improvement engagements at large enterprise health systems like HCA.

Others

• Nordic Consulting Partners: Nordic is a healthcare IT consulting firm focused on EHR implementation and optimization. While not a direct perioperative analytics competitor, it sells advisory services to the same hospital CIO/CMIO buyers and could partner with or compete against Surgical Directions on tech-enabled engagements.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCJwVV2HWya6e_F1f9n3YxZA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/surgicaldirections
• Xx.com/SurgDirections

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Surgical Directions