What does a managed staffing service provide to hospitals?
The healthcare industry operates under constant pressure to provide quality patient care while managing tight budgets and staffing shortages. Hospitals and healthcare organizations are often faced with the challenge of maintaining adequate staffing levels to meet varied patient demands. This is where a Managed Staffing Service steps in as a game-changer.
In this blog post, we will delve into the world of managed staffing, exploring what it is, how it benefits healthcare organizations, and how it supports their long-term financial and human resource goals. We will also introduce an innovative solution that focuses on filling hard-to-fill roles with skilled local locums.
Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at managed staffing – but first, the basics.
What is a Managed Staffing Service?
A managed staffing service is a comprehensive solution designed to help healthcare organizations effectively manage their workforce. It involves partnering with a specialized staffing agency – like Em-Staff – that takes on the responsibility for the recruitment, placement, and management of the organization’s open vacancies. These professionals can include nurses, physicians, allied health personnel, and more.
Key elements of a Managed Staffing Service include:
Recruitment: The staffing agency actively recruits healthcare professionals, ensuring they meet the organization's specific requirements and are adequately credentialed. Plus, all of these staff have been pre-vetted, recommended, and/or someone the team has worked with in a clinical setting. By working with the right type of managed staffing service, you’ll have staff you would be happy to see on the schedule.
Credentialing and Compliance: Managing compliance with regulatory requirements and ensuring that healthcare professionals have the necessary licenses, certifications, and background checks in place.
Scheduling and Deployment: Matching the right healthcare professionals to the right shifts and departments to ensure optimal staffing levels. For example, Em-Staff understands their role in helping alleviate short staffing –they work with you to fill the hard-to-fill shifts (e.g., nights, weekends, holidays).
Performance Monitoring: Regularly assessing the performance of the healthcare professionals and addressing any issues directly with their contracted locums.
How Does Managed Staffing Benefit a Healthcare Organization?
Managed staffing services offer a lifeline to healthcare organizations, providing numerous advantages that significantly impact their operations and the quality of patient care. In this discussion, we'll delve into the numerous ways in which managed staffing benefits healthcare organizations. From cost-effective staffing solutions to maintaining optimal staffing levels, and even enhancing the quality of patient care, managed staffing services play a pivotal role in addressing the unique challenges faced by healthcare providers today.
Let's explore these benefits in detail:
Cost Savings
Knowing that human resource (HR) departments are pulled in a number of directions, by outsourcing internal staffing responsibilities, HR teams can reduce recruitment and administrative costs, including advertising, interviewing, and onboarding expenses. This enables them to focus on important things without spending all of their time on recruitment efforts. Which leads us to…
Focus on Core Functions
Healthcare organizations can redirect their attention and resources toward patient care and core activities, leaving staffing matters to outside experts who are responsible for finding the right people to fill your highest-priority vacancies.
Improved, Reliable Staffing Levels
Managed staffing services ensure that hospitals have access to a pool of qualified healthcare professionals, reducing the risk of understaffing or overstaffing, and building better team camaraderie with consistency and familiar faces. This leads to…
Enhanced Quality of Care
Having a consistent team of skilled professionals in place ensures a higher quality of care for patients, as there are fewer last-minute replacements and temporary staff in and out the door.
Greater Local Understanding
By working with a team that finds highly skilled healthcare professionals who understand your geography, community needs, and patient population, you’ll reduce turnover, improve patient care, and foster a better sense of community belonging both internally and externally.
With all of these benefits in mind, let’s take a closer look at how managed staffing tangibly supports healthcare organizations.
How Does a Managed Staffing Service Support Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations?
This multi-faceted service goes beyond mere recruitment and placement; it's a comprehensive approach that streamlines operations, enhances patient care, and eases the administrative burden on healthcare administrators. In this discussion, we'll explore how a Managed Staffing Service works tirelessly behind the scenes to provide critical support to hospitals and healthcare organizations, ensuring they can focus on what matters most: the well-being of their patients.
Specific support mechanisms that managed staffing services provide include:
Needs Assessments: The staffing agency collaborates closely with the healthcare organization to understand its unique staffing needs, including skill sets, specializations, and volume requirements. Strong managed staffing services will take these needs assessments to help prioritize your hardest-to-fill roles and hone their efforts to find the right healthcare professional for the job.
Recruitment and Onboarding: The agency actively recruits healthcare professionals, conducts interviews, verifies credentials, and ensures compliance with all regulatory requirements.
Staffing Optimization: Healthcare professionals are matched to specific shifts and departments, ensuring that staffing levels are consistently appropriate across the board.
Continuous Improvement: The staffing agency continuously works with the hospital to refine the staffing process and make necessary adjustments that are honed based on the adapting needs of the organization.
With all of these capabilities offered, a managed staffing service isn't just a partner for healthcare organizations – it serves as a vital support system that ensures hospitals and healthcare facilities can navigate the complex landscape of staffing with efficiency and precision.
An Innovative Managed Staffing Solution that Fills Open Roles with Local Locums
In addressing the challenges of staffing, there's an innovative solution that focuses on filling hard-to-fill roles with dependable and highly skilled local locums. Local locums are healthcare professionals who are available for temporary or long-term assignments within their geographical area – and Em-Staff has refined its approach to recruiting the best possible local healthcare professionals to support New England’s hospitals and healthcare organizations.
A few of the many benefits of our innovative approach include:
Rapid Response for Last Minute Needs: Local locums can quickly step in to cover shifts, reducing the impact of staffing shortages on patient care.
Reliability: Rather than worrying about staffing needs, having a reliable managed staffing provider like Em-Staff ensures peace of mind that you’ll have a talented provider at the ready when a need pops up.
Familiarity with Local Procedures: Local locums are often familiar with local hospital procedures and requirements, which can streamline onboarding and integration.
Community Connection: These professionals may already have established connections in the community, fostering a sense of trust among the patients who enter your doors.
Customized, Flexible Contracts: Em-Staff offers flexible, customized contracts so you’re never locked into something that isn’t working. Whether you need someone for six weeks, six months, or six years, our managed staffing solution offers what you need when you need it.
In conclusion, managed staffing services play a pivotal role in helping healthcare organizations manage their workforce effectively, reduce costs, and maintain high-quality patient care. Innovative solutions – like Em-Staff’s honed approach that leverages local locums for hard-to-fill roles – further enhance the flexibility and resilience of healthcare staffing. By embracing these solutions, hospitals and health systems can navigate the staffing challenges that often come their way.
Curious to learn more about Em-Staff's innovative approach? We encourage both health systems and providers to get in touch.*
*Of note, we currently support New England’s healthcare staffing needs and hope to expand our footprint and offerings in the future.