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Michael Dwyer

Principal and managing director, healthcare advisory services

BDO Seidman LLP

Specialty: Restructuring health care companies

Much like a physician treating a patient, Mike Dwyer takes ailing hospitals, medical groups and health care provider organizations and helps return them to health.

As managing director of health services for BDO Seidman, Dwyer’s job is to analyze a health care company’s financial structure and suggest cost-cutting measures. And just as in the doctor’s office, his diagnosis is not always an easy one to hear.

In 1995, for example, Dwyer was hired by U.C. Irvine Medical Center, which was running an $11 million deficit. His prescription? Layoffs, and the consolidation of medical services.

Dwyer found that too many of the hospital’s registered nurses were doing clerical work that a less expensive nurse’s aid could perform. UCI took his advice and eliminated a number of nursing positions. UCI Medical Center is now turning a profit.

“Consolidation is a tough environment and it results in layoffs a lot,” said Dwyer. “It is very hard. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to lay people off to help save the entire company and save other jobs.”

“He is very successful at helping companies in need,” said Herb Spiwak, director of financial planning for MedPartners in Long Beach, who worked on the UCI Medical Center restructuring. “(BDO Seidman) didn’t have much of a health care consulting practice and he has built it into a multimillion-dollar operation.”

Dwyer said he always knew he wanted to work in the health care industry, so he majored in biomedical ethics at University of Rochester, where he received his bachelor’s degree. In 1984, he began consulting for National Emergency Service, which is now Humana, while simultaneously earning his MBA at the University of San Francisco. He started his current position in 1995 after more than 10 years of health care consulting for various Big Five accounting firms.

Jessica Toledano