Baird Group

What Baird Group does

Baird Group is a healthcare management consulting firm headquartered in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, founded by Kristin Baird, RN, BSN, MHA, who has more than 30 years of nursing leadership experience and is author of five books and hundreds of articles. The company serves hospitals, health systems, healthcare executives, and — increasingly — Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers and Stand-Alone Dental Plans (SADPs) that must comply with CMS secret shopping requirements. Its stated mission is to help healthcare organizations cure four revenue leaks: lost patients, low patient experience scores, disengaged employees, and unwanted turnover.

The core service portfolio has three legs: medical mystery shopping/research, healthcare training and development, and healthcare consulting. Mystery shopping rests on a proprietary methodology with a library of more than 2,000 specialty-specific scenarios, a CMS secret shopping compliance framework, and a certified shopper network; the firm has analyzed over 13,000 patient calls to benchmark appointment access. Training is anchored by the flagship 'Be The Leader Nobody Wants to Leave' 8-week virtual cohort program ($1,495 per participant) plus physician coaching, customer service training, and a Thinkific-hosted online learning portal. Consulting engagements use a 'magnifying glass, mirror, and map' framework for patient experience, employee engagement, and culture transformation work.

Revenue is generated primarily through professional services engagements (consulting, mystery shopping, focus groups, and gap analysis) supplemented by productized cohort training and online learning. Go-to-market combines founder-led thought leadership (Culture Catalyst blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter/X, Facebook), speaking engagements at healthcare conferences, and a website self-serve registration funnel for mid-market training buyers, alongside inside-sales/enterprise outreach for consulting work. Operating geographies are described as national, with the shopper network recruited locally inside client hospital regions. The company remains privately held and founder-owned, with no disclosed institutional investors, funding events, or M&A activity.

Name

Baird Group

Legal name

Baird Group

Website

https://baird-group.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Baird Group is a healthcare management consulting firm offering medical mystery shopping, patient experience consulting, and leadership development training to hospitals, health systems, and CMS-regulated health and dental plans across the United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Management Consulting

NAICS

Other Management Consulting Services (541618), Management Consulting Services (54161)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Provider Directory, Panel & Template Management (HLACADAC)

Keywords

• Healthcare consulting services
• Patient experience improvement
• Leadership development training
• Medical mystery shopping
• Employee engagement consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Fort Atkinson

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Healthcare Consulting Services: Consulting engagements for patient experience improvement, employee engagement, and organizational culture assessment. These are likely project-based or retainer engagements with healthcare organizations.
2. Training and Development Programs: Leadership development programs such as 'Be the Leader Nobody Wants to Leave' sold at $1495 per participant. Also includes coaching programs for physicians, customer service training, and in-person/online leadership courses.
3. Online Learning Platform: Remote learning programs delivered through their online learning login portal at bairdgrouponlinelearning.thinkific.com. Offers 8 transformational skill-builders for busy leaders in cohort-based format.
4. Mystery Shopping Research Services: Medical mystery shopping engagements for healthcare systems and payers, including focus groups, in-depth interviews, and gap analysis services. Includes CMS-mandated secret shopping for QHPs and SADPs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

Baird Group is a healthcare management consulting firm that helps hospitals, health systems, and health plans improve patient experience, employee engagement, leadership development, and organizational culture. The company delivers medical mystery shopping/research (including CMS-mandated secret shopping for Qualified Health Plans and Stand-Alone Dental Plans), customized training and development programs, and transformational consulting using a 'magnifying glass, mirror, and map' framework.

Product overview

Baird Group is a healthcare consulting company offering a portfolio of services centered on improving patient experience, employee engagement, and organizational culture. The core offerings include Mystery Shopping/Research services (including CMS-mandated secret shopping for QHPs and SADPs), Healthcare Training and Development programs, and Healthcare Consulting. The Be The Leader Nobody Wants to Leave program is a flagship 8-week leadership training cohort. Additional offerings include Online Learning, coaching programs, webinars/podcasts, case studies, and white papers. The company uses a 'magnifying glass, mirror, and map' approach for transformational research, learning, and coaching.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Be The Leader: 8 transformational skill-builders for busy leaders - leadership development program with online and cohort-based learning

Products and services

• Healthcare Consulting

Quantifiable outcome

• Turnover costs up to 2X annual salary per departure
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• MedBridge: Healthcare-specific online education and training platform for clinicians and healthcare staff. Comparable as a healthcare-focused digital learning subscription business, overlapping with Baird Group's online learning portal product strategy and target buyer of healthcare professionals.

Broad incumbents

• NRC Health: Healthcare patient experience analytics, surveys, and consumer insight firm serving hospitals and health plans. Comparable buyer base (healthcare providers and payers) and overlap on patient experience measurement and improvement services, but operates at greater scale with proprietary data products.
• FranklinCovey: Large leadership and organizational performance training firm offering cohort-based leadership programs. Comparable on the leadership training cohort product mechanics (similar to Be The Leader), but operating across industries rather than healthcare-only specialization.
• Press Ganey: Largest healthcare patient experience measurement and improvement firm in the US, offering HCAHPS surveys, analytics, and consulting. Comparable because Baird Group targets the same hospital CX buyer and explicitly references HCAHPS improvements as a customer outcome, but Press Ganey operates at vastly greater scale and breadth.
• Dale Carnegie Training: Long-established leadership, communication, and customer service training firm with cohort-based programs. Comparable on leadership and customer service training mechanics and enterprise sales motion, but is a generalist provider rather than a healthcare-specialized firm like Baird Group.

Direct peers

• Language of Caring: Healthcare-specific patient experience and communication training firm offering workshops, e-learning, and leadership programs. Comparable because it sells patient experience and leadership training into the same hospital/health system buyer Baird Group serves, often as a competitor in CX RFPs.
• Healthcare Experience Foundation: Nonprofit professional community and training provider focused exclusively on healthcare patient experience leaders. Comparable as a thought leadership, training, and certification body serving the same PX leader persona Baird Group targets with its consulting and Be The Leader programs.
• The Beryl Companies (Health Catalyst Patient Experience): Healthcare customer experience outsourcing and consulting firm specializing in patient access, call center, and experience programs for hospitals. Overlaps with Baird Group on mystery shopping, patient access assessment, and CX improvement engagements targeting the same hospital buyer.
• Studer Group (Huron Consulting): Healthcare-focused leadership, culture, and patient experience consulting firm now part of Huron Consulting. Directly comparable as both firms sell leadership development and culture transformation to hospitals and health systems targeting employee engagement and patient outcomes.

Emerging players

• Sinclair Customer Metrics (formerly MaritzCX/Mystery Shopping): Mystery shopping and customer experience research firm with healthcare vertical exposure. Comparable on the mystery shopping research methodology and customer measurement services Baird Group sells, with partial overlap on healthcare provider clients.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/KristinBaird
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/KristinBaird
• Facebookfacebook.com/bairdgroup
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/baird-group-baird-consulting-inc-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 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 Baird Group