Or will hospitals leverage healthcare staffing technologies in favor of the bottom line? 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 [+]

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 [+]

Convenient, safe and affordable, outpatient surgical centers (ASC) are taking over the healthcare landscape. Patients are saving as much as 61 percent on same-day procedures and outpatient centers are outclassing hospitals in areas of patient safety, satisfaction and preventable deaths.[1] Presently, more than 5,000 outpatient facilities operate in the U.S. They’ve grown in number at an annual rate of about eight percent since 2000 and represent roughly 40 percent of total health system spending in the U.S. Outpatient centers are heavily concentrated in California, Florida and Texas – states with large numbers of retiring baby boomers. More hospital employers have realized the value of the outpatient model recently and have adopted plans for expansion. Margins hover around 26 percent and outpatient populations are typically healthier and better insured. Additionally, Medicare payments to outpatient facilities have increased 11.4 percent year over year. But as standalone outpatient centers continue to penetrate less densely populated areas of the U.S., sourcing qualified surgeons, nurses and therapists will present challenges to healthcare employers and investors exploring new markets. To that end, the StayStaffed Candidate Direct Marketplace enables outpatient facilities nationwide to source hard-to-find, highly-skilled candidates. The Marketplace healthcare staffing solution is [+]