More healthcare employers hiring temporary medical professionals in wake of recession 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 [+]

Healthcare Employers Report Rising Demand for Contingent Workforce 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 [+]

A fully configured vendor management system could be part of your answer This year hospitals have until March 15 to complete HHN’s Most Wired Survey, a series of about sixty questions that aid an elite panel of hospital and information technology leaders in determining which U.S. hospitals lead the pack in the adoption and implementation of innovative healthcare technologies. The idea behind the survey is to recognize hospitals for unique healthcare IT projects that improve the wellbeing of patients, staff and stakeholders. What’s different about this year’s Most Wired Survey is the heightened emphasis on hospitals’ use of analytics and reporting, business processes reshaping the way healthcare does business in an era when performance, measurability and accountability are the new kings of conscientious hospital CEOs. For example, the survey question: “What management tools are available online?” which asks survey takers if they engage an enterprise management solution, shift-bidding, or a workforce management tool that measures staff productivity and cost trends. What would your answer be? Would it be: "Yes, my hospital vendor management tells me how much my contingent workforce costs me in a click of a mouse." or "No, you’ll have to give me a day [+]

Healthcare facilities of all sizes can contain costs, track contingent workforce activities and optimize healthcare staffing spend Human resource professionals find oasis in Vendor Management System contingent labor technologies You're a human resources leader at a busy hospital facility. The pressure is on to make every healthcare staffing penny count, and with healthcare reform expanding patient populations and restructuring reimbursements, higher ups are calling on you to support healthcare staffing decisions with ROI. Enter "Vendor Management Systems" or VMS. A means of tracking patterns in staffing volume, quantifying the performance of contingent workers and managing all costs associated with a contingent workforce of nurses, doctors, therapists, PAs, interns, orderlies and volunteers. It's free to implement, and peers in the profession have told you their vendor management system saves time and money. It's tremendous, say peers, to view and manage all of their healthcare travelers, per diems, locum tenens and scope-of-work contractors in real time and with just an Internet connection. Having access to a highly competitive healthcare staffing environment, where staffing agencies bid on postings and where volume pricing with preferred vendors can be negotiated. “Whereas one staffing vendor agency may have a stated  bill rate of $64 an hour  [+]

After what may have amounted to a two-year lull in hiring, hospital staffing trends are looking up. Analysts with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expect private and public hospitals to add more than 500,000 healthcare jobs nationwide to payrolls over the next eight years. Singled-out, Florida alone added 22,000 healthcare jobs over the past 12 months, trumping the state’s standout industry, construction, which employs about the half the workers it did during the boom times. With performance mandates at the forefront of reform, healthcare employers are challenged with staffing units in an efficient, cost effective manner. This often involves engaging a hospital staffing solution that not only alleviates costly payroll burdens, but the administrative headaches that come along with staffing for census fluctuations, family medical leave, vacations and sick days. Web-based hospital staffing solutions that nurture a contingent workforce of qualified candidates for healthcare employers make sense in the post-reform era. To source, recruit and document candidates online saves hospital managers countless hours in the interview process, while bidding, scheduling and covering shifts via Internet allows administrators more time to focus on quality patient care and less time on the phone and buried in paperwork. The beauty of a hospital staffing solution, such [+]