A shocking story published in the Wall Street Journal* last month is enough to make your skin crawl. No, it wasn’t an article about substandard medical practices in remote third-world nations. It was about unsafe injection practices, improper medication preparation and the re-use of single-dose vials and needles right here in the U.S. Just when you thought those days were gone.

The article serves as a reminder for healthcare employers and professionals to maintain a high level of hygiene and sanitation in all aspects of practice. Sadly, the thousands of patients who were potentially exposed to Hepatitis B, C, HIV and other serious infectious diseases in the article didn’t have to be. All that was required was for caregivers to acknowledge what one commentary referred to as ‘sterile techniques 101’: Don’t use needles twice, single-dose vials are just that – single dose; and always prepare injection medications in a sterilized environment.

Though much has been done at the regulatory level over the past decade to improve safe medical practices in hospitals – outpatient clinics, as indicated the spate of cases mentioned in the article – may still have a long way to go. Authors posit that governmental oversight of outpatient safety standards is lackadaisical and many offer treatments at rates lower than hospitals because they cut corners by means of unethical cost-saving measures such as re-use.

In for a 2-minute colonoscopy out with Hepatitis C

Imagine arriving for an outpatient procedure as simple as a colonoscopy and leaving with liver-threatening Hepatitis C. It’s what happened to 85 patients – maybe more – visiting a Las Vegas Endoscopy clinic** in 2008. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) determined unsafe injection practices at the clinic exposed a potential 40,000 patients to the blood of already infected patients, some during an anesthesia drip for the simple procedure. The incident resulted in a statewide medical panic.

Candidate Direct Healthcare Staffing Software assists employers meet stringent hiring guidelines

Nurses know their track record of performance is under constant scrutiny. To this end, Candidate Direct provides healthcare employers with an Internet-based staffing platform to hire, track and document top-performing practitioners. To learn more call 800-585-1710 or click Get Started and a Candidate Direct representative will contact you promptly.

*At the Clinic…Care and Infection

**Large-scale hepatitis alert has no precedent

“With more nurses, therapists and allied health professionals on-boarding at facilities of all types, effectively managing contingent labor, travelers and temporary help will be vital to operations,” said Sue Higgins, Director of Product Development at StayStaffed Technologies, a Florida-based vendor management firm. “Larger healthcare employers are back to hiring and the demand for nurse specialists and therapists with advanced credentials keeps growing.”

To recruit, hire and process these highly-skilled healthcare jobs candidates, Stay Staffed Technologies provides healthcare employers with a virtual staffing Marketplace.*Loaded with automated features, this Internet-based vendor management marketplace enables the accurate matching of healthcare job candidates with posted job descriptions, promotes easy candidate review, documentation and credentialing, and establishes a foundation on which healthcare employers can build an internal workforce of talented candidates to call on in a moment’s notice.  The Marketplace requires no investment in hardware or software and implementation and training is fast and easy. Clients utilizing Marketplace Bill Rate report significant annual cost savings on candidates.

In April, Higgins’ firm reported a 25 percent uptick in temporary hiring practices at client facilities. At the time, she said, her vendor management company was on track to exceed last year’s projections. Now in the fourth quarter, Higgins said healthcare job postings at her firm’s parent are up 56 percent – more than double what they were in April.

“It’s a level of growth the industry hasn’t seen in some time,” she said.

*To learn more about the Candidate Direct Marketplace call 1-800-585-1710 or click Get Started Today.

BOCA RATON, FL July, 2011 – Effectively blending travel nurses and contingent workers with permanent staff can save healthcare employers up to 13 percent on staffing costs. Though during tough economic times hospitals may limit the use of travelers and temporary workers as a means of cutting costs, vendor staffing experts at Candidate Direct say doing so can have the opposite effect: too few travelers can increase staffing costs and reduce nurse efficiency.

Last year alone, almost 90 percent of contingent staff users said costs would rise if they eliminated the use of temporary workers.  By increasing the ratio of travel nurses to permanent nurse staff hospitals can reduce costly overtime, health benefits, payroll taxes, pensions and paid time off.

“With economic uncertainty on the horizon, investing in permanent staff can be expensive and risky,” said Sue Higgins Product Development Manager of Candidate Direct, an information technology company specializing in hospital vendor management. “Contingent workers minimize healthcare employer’s obligation and exposure to labor laws, while affording staffing managers the flexibility they need to cost-efficiently downsize their workforce at any time without penalty.”

Candidate Direct provides healthcare employers with web-based workforce management software to efficiently on-board and off-board travel nurses and other contingent staff.  Real time reporting capabilities put essential analytics in the hands of managers to track applicants, documentation and evaluations. Positions can be posted fast and easy online and an optional bill rate feature saves another six percent on contingent staffing costs by enabling nurse staffing agencies to submit candidates below bill rates posted by employers.

“One health system posted an hourly cap for an Occupational Therapist at $64,” said Higgins. The employer awarded the position to an agency that submitted a qualified candidate for $62 an hour, saving the employer $6,000 on a single candidate when annualized.”

Though cost as is a major factor in staffing decisions, nurse quality and performance are the primary reasons why hospitals are supplementing nurse staffs with travel nurses and per diems.

“Over the years, traveling nurses are seen as having more experience. They’re familiar with diverse patient populations, think quickly on their feet and adapt to new surroundings fast,” Higgins said.

Lengthy time to fill rates and costly on-boarding of permanent staff resulting from attrition were additional reasons cited in the study for increasing travel nurse hires. In contrast to an average 65 days reported by hospitals to source and train a permanent RN, travel nurses are available almost immediately and require only a few days of orientation and training.

Analysts expect up to 81% of healthcare providers to consider some type of workforce management software in 2011, as a means to shave staffing spend, procure specialists quickly and fully manage contingent staffing programs at or below cost. Candidate Direct hospital vendor management requires no investment in software or hardware and in just a few clicks managers can produce analytical reports for stakeholders in real time utilizing a single interface.

Candidate Direct can help to manage existing staffing partners and at the same time allow healthcare employers to tap into new local, regional and national staffing agency resources.  Candidate Direct saves time, money, aggravation and can significantly improve the quality of nurse staff.

“As healthcare providers usher in a new era of low readmission rates, high patient safety standards and improved bedside care, hospitals can’t afford to be short on staff,” Higgins said. “A fully configurable Vendor Management System can streamline recruiting efforts, process temporary staff quickly and grant healthcare employers access to a steady supply of highly-skilled travel nurses and per diems at competitive rates.”

About Candidate Direct

The Candidate Direct staffing solution is utilized to source, recruit and procure permanent and contingent staff. We provide a full array of web-based software, providing large health systems and independent practitioners with basic applications to streamline and automate tasks such as position posting, applicant and workforce tracking. The Candidate Direct platform of services provides a single point of contact to monitor vendor compliance, candidate screening and credentialing information. Candidate Direct is web-based and requires no purchase of hardware or software.

*2011U.S. Hospital Nursing Labor Costs Study. The KPMG Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Institute

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Contact:

Diane Bok – Managing Director

800-585-1710

diane@candidatedirect.com

With third-party payor reimbursements dropping below sustainable levels and healthcare reform shrinking Medicare and Medicaid, hospitals will find profits harder to come by. For some, better managing staffing agencies and using data to drive staffing decisions will do the trick. For others, outsourcing workforce management functions or re-evaluating managed care contracts will be sufficient to reign-in cost centers and boost profits.

Staffing, a healthcare employer’s single largest expense, is probably where hospital cost reductions can affect profits most quickly. Patient census data and the benchmarking of hours worked per case allow for the flexible and accurate scheduling of part timers and travelers. This reduces staff down time, heightens productivity during peak times and is critical to not over or under staffing facilities, both of which adversely impact profits.

Tightening vendor policies and diligently tracking the performance of staffing agencies can also improve the look of a P&L. Narrowing vendor relationships to only top performers and holding agencies accountable to competitive bill rates and timely submission of documents will save staffing managers time, money and aggravation; savings that can be converted to profits simply by adopting a vendor management system that in most instances requires no capital investment on behalf of the hospital.

Additionally, leveraging various staffing technologies can put a feather in the cap of hospital profits. For example: configurable workforce management software enables the real time reporting of labor costs and staffing levels. This in turn empowers managers to address staffing needs on a shift-to-shift, day-to-day basis rather than by pay period or month.

Finally, hospitals need to look at rates of reimbursement and the volume of policy holders among managed care providers. Is the hospital receiving rates agreed upon in the contract and in a timely manner? Which contracts might be considered “high risk” and need reviewing more often than once or twice a year to ensure they haven’t become a liability to profits?

Candidate Direct can help hospitals preserve profits by providing staffing solutions aimed at staff efficiency. Our web-based platform requires no investment in hardware or software and is customizable to suit a hospital’s individual staffing needs. Client’s report increased fill rates, decreased staffing spend and reduced time to hire – benefits that lead to profitability and quality patient care. Realize $6,200 savings per FTE annually.

By holding healthcare staffing agencies accountable for high quality candidates at the best rates, the right vendor management system can help hospitals return to profitability through efficiency and cost containment. Managers save time sourcing, recruiting and hiring candidates and, at their fingertips, have analytics reporting capabilities in real time to accurately staff for fluctuations in census and patient needs on a shift-to-shift basis.

As you know, National Hospital Week is about awareness. It’s a reminder of the important role hospitals play in fostering community health, giving the sick hope and bringing new lives into the world. Without hospitals in America, it’s scary to think where we’d be.

During this year’s “Champions of Care” event, celebrated by hospitals nationwide May 8-14, facility organizers will be reaching out to communities with health & wellness fairs, educational events, open houses, novelties and other promotions and activities to give thanks and encourage families to use hospital facilities.

For some hospital administrators, National Hospital Week signifies a “tightening up of the ship.” A closer look at efficiencies and workflows, sanitation, patient safety and bedside care. It’s a time to reward top performers and send a message to nurse and referring physician communities that excellence begets recognition at your facility.

Until recently, tracking workforce performance was a daunting task. Managers had to be interviewed and files – not always centrally located or in the same department – had to be reviewed for consistency and accuracy. Countless hours culling over evaluations from department heads and patients led to migraines and unfortunately managers who were suppose to enter notes or sign forms never did and are now gone. Oh the woes of turnover.

Candidate Direct staffing solutions solve this problem for healthcare employers via web-based workforce management solutions proven to reduce staffing cost and spend and alleviate administrative burdens through workforce automation. Clients report an uptick in retention and savings of up to $6,200 per candidate annualized. A single analytics dashboard provides full transparency into the workforce, resulting in business intelligence invaluable to budget projections and presentations to stakeholders.

From recruitment and requisitioning to approval, electronic documentation, evaluation and a bevy of customizable features and automated pre-filters, Candidate Direct empowers healthcare employers with state-of-the-Internet technologies to quantify workforce performance.

Call 800.585.1710 today or click Get Started to learn more.

A recent employment survey conducted by the staffing industry’s leading job board suggests that temporary workers are back in vogue. Twenty-nine percent of companies’ surveyed from February to March said they hired temporary workers in the first quarter of 2011 and 26 percent said they would in the second quarter, reports Staffing Industry Analysts, a firm specializing in workforce management trends.

Though the uptick in employment is great news for healthcare staffing agencies, healthcare employers must find an effective means of managing temporary and contract labor, or the inefficient on boarding and off boarding of employees will result in wasted staffing dollars and diminished patient care delivery.

The survey, which included 2,800 hiring managers and 5,600 workers across a broad spectrum of industries and company sizes, also showed 28 percent of respondents hiring permanent employees in the first quarter – the biggest increase in three years.

“With healthcare reform knocking on everyone’s door, telling hospitals and healthcare employers to ramp up patient safety efforts and increase care quality, a workforce management solution such as the Candidate Direct Marketplace enables administrators to manage both temporary and permanent workers utilizing a  single point of contact.” Said Sue Higgins, Product Development Manager from Candidate Direct. “This increases staffing visibility and quickly exposes work-flow inefficiencies.”

Higgins said postings at her company are up 25 percent in the first quarter of 2011 and are on track to exceed industry projections by year end. Candidate Direct healthcare staffing solutions are highly efficient and require no investment in hardware or software – the service is FREE to healthcare employers.

Related Blog: Nurse Staffing

The Candidate Direct Marketplace® provides a single place for healthcare employers to source, recruit, procure and manage contingent and direct hire needs. Our healthcare staffing blog provides readers with information about current trends and aims to stay in the forefront of healthcare staffing technology and industry news. Please contact Candidate Direct for more information about our healthcare staffing software technology and hospital cost reduction.

Put simply, meaningful use translates to efficiency: the efficient use and sharing of patient care information via electronic health records (EHRs) to enhance outcomes. Though some healthcare employers feel pressured by reform advocates to adopt EHRs prematurely, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, David Blumenthal, M.D., thinks many hospitals and independent practitioners have been waiting too long.

“Can we make these changes expeditiously enough?” Blumenthal said in an interview with H&HN.

The good news is hospitals and independent healthcare employers are indeed making changes. The H&HN survey proves it over time. In 2006-2010, the number of physicians participating in a closed-loop medication system rose more than 15 percent, greatly diminishing the risk of ‘right patient wrong medication.’

Over the five-year period 2005-2010, the number of hospitals using barcodes or RFID (radiofrequency identification) technologies to track medications increased a whopping 33 percent, decreasing theft and minimizing abuse among staff.

“If you don’t have electronic ordering as part of a closed-loop system, you don’t have it as a safety component, Linda Reed, R.N. states in a report entitled “Meaningful Use Hoists Hospital IT to Next Level.”

Shockingly, the top 99 “Most Wired” healthcare providers in 2010 were 31 percentage points ahead of cohorts in deploying computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems to synchronize alerts for physicians, nurses and pharmacists. An indication of how far some providers still have to come to meet meaningful use guidelines moving forward.

When integrated with a clinical decision support system, CPOE provides clinicians with real-time feedback over a wide-range of diagnostic and treatment-related information.  Examples include drug interactions, patient allergies to prescribed medications, medication contraindications and renal- and weight-based dosing, reports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To adopt meaningful use, EHRs and CPOE, healthcare employers need qualified staff. Candidate Direct provides staffing solutions to healthcare providers of all sizes and types. Web-based and FREE to hospitals, the Candidate Direct Marketplace allows healthcare employers to find high quality staff quickly and to source candidates with the credentials needed to advance patient care swiftly. Call 800.585.1710 today or click Get Started.

The Candidate Direct Marketplace® provides a single place for healthcare providers to source, recruit, procure and manage contingent and direct hire needs. Our healthcare technology blog provides readers with information about current trends and aims to stay in the forefront of healthcare staffing technology and industry news. Please contact Candidate Direct for more information about our healthcare staffing software technology and hospital cost reduction.

BOCA RATON, FL April, 2011 – A nurse staffing report published in the New England Journal of Medicine March 17 demonstrates the importance flexible nurse staffing has on positive patient outcomes.

The three-year study, entitled “Nurse Staffing and Inpatient Hospital Mortality” tracked nurse staffing levels across 43 hospital units at a tertiary Magnet facility. Findings showed that when nurses were accurately matched with patient needs shift-by-shift, risk of mortality decreased.

“This study demonstrates that hospitals must implement staffing systems that are flexible enough to meet the individual needs of each patient for every shift, every unit and every day, said ANA President Karen A. Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN. “It shows that nurse staffing should not be viewed as a cost to be minimized, but as a critical factor in producing quality patient outcomes – ultimately saving lives.”

Healthcare providers can achieve what the ANA report calls for through effective workforce management, said Sue Higgins of Candidate Direct, a firm specializing in performance-based healthcare technology staffing solutions.  Candidate Direct offers a full array of web-based software, providing organizations with basic applications to streamline and automate mundane staffing tasks such as position posting, applicant and workforce tracking. Additionally, the company can deploy full service vendor management systems in less than one business day.

Because Candidate Direct relies on a single point of contact to recruit candidates and manage multiple vendor sources, healthcare staffing managers can easily flag shifts where more staff is needed and source candidates on short notice to fill positions. This helps bridge gaps in patient care, said the staffing expert, and alleviates burdens associated with staffing shortages.

“One health system recently filled 10 nursing positions within days of posting to Candidate Direct,” Higgins said. “By filling positions quickly, clients reduce risk associated with poor patient safety and can reverse the impact of low nurse-patient ratios almost immediately.”

Higgins attributes the uptick of activity at her firm to a vendor management system that makes finding and recruiting medical professionals easy – even if they have to travel. Unlike similar staffing solutions, Candidate Direct isn’t overrun with under-qualified candidates and is ideal for sourcing hard-to-find specialists in geographic areas where local labor pools fall short.

Moreover, the Candidate Direct system empowers healthcare employers to identify vendors that continually fill medical jobs with highly-qualified candidates at a desired price point. The staffing solution’s optional bill rate feature allows healthcare staffing agencies to compete for positions, often driving the cost of staffing down. Whereas one agency may quote $65 for an experienced physical therapist another may quote $62. For one employer, this amounted to a savings of more than $6,000 on a single candidate over the course of a year.

Higgins said that when utilized across multiple hospital units, a fully configurable vendor management system such as the Candidate Direct workforce solution can save healthcare employers thousands in healthcare staffing costs each year. More importantly, the technology carries with it the potential to boost patient safety and keep mortality rates low.

The number of employers using vendor management almost doubled in 2008-2010. In 2011, usage is expected to climb another 27 percent.

“The number of healthcare employers relying on vendor management or similar workforce solutions to promote flexible nurse staffing and save money has doubled in recent years,” Higgins said. Medical jobs postings are up 25% in the first quarter at Candidate Direct and are expected to surpass annual industry projections of 27%.

About Candidate Direct

The Candidate Direct staffing solution is utilized to source, recruit and procure permanent and contingent staff. We provide a full array of web-based software, providing large health systems and independent practitioners with basic applications to streamline and automate tasks such as position posting, applicant and workforce tracking. The Candidate Direct platform of services provides a single point of contact to monitor vendor compliance, candidate screening and credentialing information. Candidate Direct is web-based and requires no purchase of hardware or software.

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Contact:

Diane Bok – Managing Director

800-585-1710

diane@candidatedirect.com

Patient boon and shortage of specialists cause for growth in healthcare staffing

Though contingent workers were the first to go when healthcare bottom lines “bottomed out,” many are the first to return, as hospitals reconfigure healthcare staffing needs in the face of economic recovery and lingering uncertainty. Workflows need to be re-evaluated and nurses, physicians and therapists knowledgeable in healthcare information technologies need to be sourced to comply with pending government reform mandates.

Just two years ago, millions of newly unemployed Americans lost their healthcare benefits as the worst recession in decades swept the nation.  The demand for medical services declined and margins for some healthcare employers sank below sustainable standards. Pay and hiring freezes were implemented and spend on staffing got so tight that even some of the most seasoned medical specialists lost their jobs.

Now by granting 46 million more Americans access to healthcare they never had, healthcare reform promises to repopulate hospital floors and rekindle the demand for acute care and niche medical services. This boon in patient flow will call many back to work and result in modest growth for the healthcare staffing industry in 2011.

Naturally, a flood of new patients to the system means a return to the ill-fated healthcare staffing shortage, along with an increase in pricing pressures for qualified candidates. More doctors and nurses continue to retire from the profession than enter it and analysts with Philadelphia-based Hay Group project base salaries in healthcare to inch up half percentage point in 2011.

The Stay Staffed Candidate Direct Marketplace aids healthcare employers in dealing with this one-two punch. First, the Marketplace aids in sourcing and recruiting qualified candidates from anywhere in the country, and second, a competitive bill rate feature allows healthcare staffing agencies participating in the Marketplace to submit competitive base rates for candidates – rates often lower than salary caps posted by healthcare employers. Postings in the Candidate VMS have increased by more than 25 percent in the last 60 days.

The Marketplace requires no capital outlay and is supported by the industry standard of a 2- 3% fee charged directly to agencies for placing candidates. Healthcare employers incur no cost for the service. The Candidate Direct Marketplace is web-based and provides functionality to support contract data, requisitioning, vendor compliance, candidate screening, credentialing and licensure documentation, workflow automation, applicant processing and billing.*

The Candidate Direct Marketplace® provides a single place for healthcare providers to source, recruit, procure and manage contingent and direct hire needs. Our healthcare technology blog provides readers with information about current trends and aims to stay in the forefront of healthcare staffing technology and industry news. Please contact Candidate Direct for more information about our healthcare staffing software technology and hospital cost reduction.

*Candidate Direct Marketplace – a fully-configurable web-based staffing enterprise with features customizable to meet individual healthcare provider contingent workforce needs.

Searching for healthcare information is now the third most common reason that consumers go online, just behind checking email and general web searches, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Internet Project. Why do consumers search the Internet first for medical information? Same reason they do a lot of things online: it’s fast; it’s convenient; and it may be less costly than an in-person consult. But, says a study from the New England Journal of Medicine, patients still rely on physicians to sort the good information from the bad. Concurs Robert Bok, Chairman and CEO of Candidate Direct Staffing, “Trained healthcare professionals are still the most trusted source of medical information; an entirely ‘virtual’ medical practice is still a long way off.”

In fact, patients’ trust in healthcare professionals to explain online findings has increased, while their unquestioning faith in Internet sources has decreased. Consumers are realizing that with so much data online, not all of it is reliable. Despite the challenges in handling patients’ information overload, many healthcare organizations have already adopted the attitude expressed in the latest Cybercitizen Health® U.S. study, which found that the Internet has created a more empowered patient base and “enabled the consumer to take a more active and informed role in their healthcare decision making.” In a best-case scenario, that means better patient care and a better provider-patient partnership.

The Candidate Direct Marketplace® provides a single place for healthcare providers to source, recruit, procure and manage contingent and direct hire needs. Our healthcare technology blog provides readers with information about current trends and aims to stay in the forefront of healthcare staffing technology and industry news. Please contact Candidate Direct for more information about our healthcare staffing software and technology.