Consultant – Hospital Costing and Performance System, Ministry of Health and Wellness
About the role
The Ministry of Health and Wellness, through its Project Management Unit, is inviting expressions of interest for a consultancy to develop a hospital costing and performance system for Belize's secondary public hospital network. The consultant will gather and systematize data across all seven public hospitals, build reusable data-capture and processing tools, produce unit cost and productivity estimates by ward and service line, and, jointly with the Ministry's IT team, implement a management dashboard the Ministry can maintain on its own. The consultancy is part of project BL-L1048, Improving Efficiency, Quality, and Access in Belize's Health System, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The notice invites eligible consulting firms, which may form joint ventures, and selection follows the Individual Consultant Method under the IDB's consultant policies (GN-2350-15). Contract no. BL-L1048-P000012. Further details are in the Terms of Reference.
Responsibilities
- Assess data availability and BHIS configuration at each hospital, design the data-input tools and processing pipeline, and review the Western Regional Hospital pilot method
- Deploy and test data-capture software and instruments, build the BHIS ward-mapping tables, and gather and validate data through field visits
- Build a reproducible costing model with unit costs and productivity indicators by ward and service line for all seven hospitals, with a data-quality report for each
- Implement the management dashboard on the Ministry's approved platform with access management, technical documentation and a data dictionary, and hand it over jointly with the Ministry's IT team
- Prepare SOPs and a data-governance protocol, train Ministry and hospital staff (including train-the-trainer), and deliver a final report with a sustainability roadmap
Requirements
- An advanced degree in a quantitative field such as economics or health economics, data science or engineering, statistics or computer science
- Ability to build data-collection tools or applications (the assignment requires building software, not only using it)
- Strong programming and data skills (Python, SQL or equivalent) with reproducible, version-controlled workflows
- Hands-on experience with health information systems and administrative or encounter data (BHIS, DHIS2 or equivalent), including cleaning and reconciling real-world data
- Experience designing and deploying management dashboards (Power BI or equivalent) and handing over data products with an organization's IT team
- Experience collecting primary data in health facilities and working with clinical, finance and administrative staff
- Proven ability to deliver technical work independently and coordinate across several institutions
- Client references showing satisfactory completion of similar projects
Preferred qualifications
- Experience in the Belize, Caribbean or Central American health sector and familiarity with public-hospital operations
- Spanish and English