Staffing Robot - Healthcare Staffing, Marketing and Technology Blog

Top Healthcare Staffing Stories of 2009 and Predictions for 2010

Over the next few weeks both of my sons have birthdays and I plan on spending some down time with my family for the holidays. Therefore, this will be my last post until the new year.

I thought I'd use this post to highlight some of the big events that affected the healthcare staffing industry in 2009 as well as make a few predictions about the industry for 2010. (is it 'twenty-ten' or 'two thousand ten'?)

What the healthcare staffing industry looked like in 2009:

Major downturn in spending on healthcare temporary staff.

The biggest news in 2009 for the healthcare staffing industry was undoubtedly about the downturn in the economy. My second blog post ever was on the reasons hospitals were spending less on healthcare agency staff. The down turn in the economy even made people start asking the question: "is there still a nursing shortage?" From there, leading economists confirmed that not only was the economy bad but that it will take awhile for it to improve and return the healthcare staffing industry to pre-2009 levels. And finally, the Staffing Industry Analysts informed us that the nurse travel industry decreased by 44% this year and we saw this downturn reflected in the revenue loss reported by major public healthcare staffing companies.

Widespread adoption of healthcare vendor management.

In 2009 hospitals gave a big vote of confidence to vendor management as the preferred model for agency management. VMS has matured in the industry and delivered on its promise of saving hospitals both time and money on their staffing costs.

How healthcare reform will affect healthcare staffing.

The topic of how healthcare reform will affect healthcare staffing couldn't be avoided. Many debates about the pros and cons of healthcare reform occurred on my blog and many of us had the privilege of hearing former Senator Tom Daschle's view on healthcare reform at the healthcare staffing industry conference. AMN even produced results from a poll suggesting that hospital CEO's feel healthcare reform will benefit the healthcare staffing industry.

Technology VMS companies struggle.

Even though some healthcare vendor management technology companies thrived in 2009 as hospitals increased their adoption of VMS, many companies did not fair so well. A few healthcare VMS technology companies had to close their doors this year while some VMS companies struggled to pay their staffing agency partners. Additionally, some VMS companies found acquisition to be the best way to survive the turbulent year.

Increased use of social media.

2009 was the year that many hospitals and staffing agencies began to use social media. Many hospitals, such as Providence St. Vincents in Portland Oregon who found success with their 'pink glove dance video' that went viral, took full advantage of these tools. Some hospitals are still behind when it comes to social media while several hospitals are finding success with tools such as Twitter. Both healthcare staffing agencies and hospitals are now promoting and monitoring their brands online, as the online tools for brand promotion and management are starting to become more prevalent. I've even created some helpful tools for people to search for healthcare staffing industry information and follow companies in the healthcare staffing industry on Twitter.

As you can see, 2009 was a very eventful year for the healthcare staffing industry. So what will the next year bring?

My predictions for healthcare staffing in 2010:

More consolidation of staffing agencies and VMS companies.

After struggling through the economic downturn of the last 1.5 years many companies are now really feeling the effects. I see several staffing agencies closing their doors and many more acquisitions in 2010. I wouldn't be surprised if we even see some consolidation with some of the major players. In addition, I expect we'll see some more acquisitions of healthcare VMS companies.

Continued adoption of vendor management.

Hospitals will continue to choose vendor management for their agency management solution. As the rate of adoption continues to increase, I expect we'll see hospitals still choose vendor neutral healthcare vendor management companies over agency run managed service providers.

New technology players.

The industry has gotten a bit stale in terms of innovation and new technology options. In addition, we've seen a decent amount of consolidation of industry technology companies. Both of these facts suggest to me that new players will enter the market and hopefully they will bring with them some exciting and innovate technologies. As these players enter the healthcare staffing industry I expect we'll see more and more hospitals and healthcare staffing companies embracing technology to improve their staffing process. Stay tuned!

New marketing methods and opportunities.

As budgets tighten many hospitals and staffing agencies will look for more inexpensive and effective methods for marketing their services. Many more healthcare staffing organizations will turn to SEO/SEM and social media for company/brand promotion. 

The market will come back slowly. Kind of.

Even though there are some positive signs for the economy overall and there has been some slight improvements in the healthcare staffing industry I don't see anything that suggests we should get too excited. Earlier this week the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) hosted a webinar about the economic outlook for 2010. Their predictions suggested that every industry will improve in 2010 - except healthcare staffing. In fact, they are predicting an overall decline of -1%. Therefore, unfortunately, I believe 2010 will still be a year of struggle. There will be some positive bumps here and there but we won't start fully pulling out of this down turn until early/mid 2011.

What are your predictions for healthcare staffing in 2010? Please share them here if you have any.

I wish you all well - happy holidays - happy new year. See you in 2010!

Make Your Nomination for the Staffing Industry Innovator Award

The Staffing Industry Analysts is asking for nominations for the "Staffing Innovator of the Year" award. The award will go to honor a person or company that has contributed a significant innovation toward the positive development of the staffing industry ecosystem.

No doubt you're having a hard time deciding between a certain healthcare staffing blogger or a particular healthcare VMS company that has completely changed how hospitals manage their staffing agencies across the U.S. However, don't forget about the other companies out there also doing there part to innovate this industry:

• Med Staff On-Call - In the very near future Med Staff On-Call's approach to staffing could become the medical staffing industry standard. Their entire recruitment and on-boarding process is done on-line with technology. They also communicate job orders and receive confirmations from their staff in the same way. This process allows them to save their clients money, pay their staff more and keep their overhead low. A truly winning business model.

• Clearview - Clearview makes the best product on the market for managing your business as a staffing agency. There is no second. They also have a suite of other products for nurse competency testing, recruiting, application tracking, online clinical skill checklists and electronic signature documents. They continue to put out new products and grow their already impressive market share.

• TempWorks - TempWorks makes great software for staffing agencies. It's not specific to healthcare so I can't say that I've used it or even seen that much of it. However, following their updates and blog - Staffing Talk - makes it clear that these guys are big innovators in the  staffing industry.

• Amistaff - Amistaff is the parent company of Nurse Testing, eSig Tech and Blue Sky Medical Staffing Software. More healthcare staffing companies use Nurse Testing than any other similar product on the market. Currently, Amistaff is planning on launching a new product called Prophecy in early 2010. This product will incorporate clinical, behavioral and situational assessments with their Nurse Testing product. If it lives up to the hype it could prove to be a game changer for hospitals recruit, screen and hire healthcare staff.

• ShiftHound - The former founders of Bidshift (now Concerro) have started a new company called ShiftHound. ShiftHound delivers a very light weight, yet robust core scheduling tool for hospitals to manage their day to day staffing. ShiftHound is the first of many companies to follow that will challenge incumbent staffing software companies in this space with a more focused, simple and light weight solution. It will be worth watching how they navigate the challenges of the industry. Also, I'm dying to know if these guys left because the new owners of Concerro got their name wrong.

• Medical Solutions - They may appear to be your average size agency doing business as usual. However, their use of social media and having the #1 page rank spot for healthcare staffing blog definitely makes them stand out from the crowd. The information they provide to the industry is valuable and makes them good contenders for industry innovators.

Help promote the industry by participating in this award nomination. Also, be sure and leave a comment if you think there are other companies out there deserving of a nomination.

Alright - get on it. Make your nomination for the staffing industry innovator award. And remember - it's Staffing Robot - with a space between the words. ;-)

Help! Is there an economist in the house? - Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit [pt. 4]

Keynote with Alan Beaulieu: Help! Is there an economist in the house?

Alan Beaulieu, Senior Economist for the Institute for Trend Research had a great session at the Healthcare Staffing Summit last week. Two years ago he presented at this same conference and predicted the downturn in the economy almost to the dollar and date. At the time, things were going so well most people thought he must be way off. Turns out he was right on. So this year, we all listened intently to what he had to say.

Interestingly, Alan tried to convince us that he would only speak facts and avoid politics. However, I’ve never listened to anyone talk about the economy and successfully remove their political slant. In this regard he did a decent job – but at the end some of his comments were somewhat political. Specifically, he stated that the cost of healthcare reform could make U.S. businesses less competitive internationally. Perhaps. But there are several arguments that suggest healthcare reform will make U.S. businesses more competitive. Right now, American businesses have the burden of providing healthcare for their employees while no other country has this same cost. Removing this cost could help U.S. employers tremendously in terms of competition. Regardless of who’s right – you can’t tell me this isn’t a political statement.

Alan went on to take a few more cracks at the government. Toward the end he said "but don't get me wrong. I'm very civic minded. I took public transportation to get here today. I drove a GM." Very clever.

Here are my notes on his session:

• The economy will rebound. However, it won’t be a “V” or a “W” – it will be a “U” and it will be a long U. Kind of like Charlie Browns smile.
• It could take up to 10 years (2020) before we return to 2007 levels.
• Right now is a great time to create wealth.
• Investing in property, Fed-Ex (international shipping), CAT (international building) and even publicly traded staffing companies like AMN and Cross Country are all good investments right now.
• Invest in food, water, energy, healthcare and green companies.
• Unemployment is worse than the government anticipated.
  
• For the 1st half of 2010 unemployment will get to 10%+ and then improve to 7-8.5% and stay at this rate for a long time.
• Inflation is coming and is unavoidable.

Related Posts

Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 [Pt. 3]

Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 [Pt. 2]

Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 [Pt. 1]

National Healthcare Trends - Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 [Pt. 3]

Keynote with Senator Tom Daschle: National Healthcare Trends and Issues and Their Impact on the Healthcare Workforce

Being in D.C. last week, you couldn't help finding yourself in discussions about healthcare reform and its impact on the healthcare staffing industry. The highlight of the Healthcare Staffing Summit was listening to former Senator, Tom Daschle speak on the topic. Whether you agree with him politically or not, you can’t argue with his knowledge and command over the topic of healthcare, as well as his speaking ability. It was an amazing opportunity to hear him.

Here are some highlights of his speech from my notes:

• Reforming healthcare is a transformative event, equivalent to similar events that happened after WW2, the civil rights movement and 9/11.
• 50 million people are uninsured at part or all of the year and 48% of those insured are not adequately insured.
• The U.S. is the only industrialized country that has a problem with healthcare coverage for its citizens.
• Healthcare costs everyone in the U.S. about $8K per person. This is 40% higher than the next highest country – Switzerland.  22% of these costs go to administration.
• Starbucks spends more on healthcare than they do coffee. 
• Ford spends more on healthcare than they do steel.
• Medical costs are the #1 reason for personal bankruptcy (over 50%) in this country.
• The U.S. starts its spending on healthcare at the most expensive part of the cost pyramid (the top) and works its way down, running out of money before everyone can be covered. Other societies work in reverse, in order to cover more people adequately at a more cost effective rate.
• Senator Daschle calls the debate about healthcare reform “the noise of democracy” which he states is “far better than the noise of violence.”
• Healthcare reform will create a tremendous demand for healthcare professionals, thereby having a positive effect on the healthcare staffing industry.
• Today we have 21^st century operating rooms with 19^th century administration.
• Primary areas of the healthcare reform bill without consensus - public option; financing mechanism of $1 Trillion; to what extent cuts should be part of funding, mandates; role of the employers; medical malpractice; insurance companies selling across state lines; federal health board.

Related Posts

Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 [Pt. 2]

Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 [Pt. 1]

The Threat of VMS - Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 [Pt. 2]

Keynote with Barry Asin: The Future of Healthcare Staffing: Where We’ve Been and Where We are Going.

Barry Asin is the Chief Analyst & Managing Executive, Products for the Staffing Industry Analysts. As always, Barry presented a lot of valuable information about the current state of the healthcare staffing industry last week at the 2009 Healthcare Staffing Summit. I look forward to his presentation every year at the summit. Although much of the news painted a bleak picture for the foreseeable future, it was interesting to get the data and face reality. Here are the highlights of his presentation from my notes:

• Turnover of hospital employees has dramatically decreased.
• There is currently a power struggle between hospitals and staffing suppliers and the hospitals are winning.
• 44% decrease in travel nursing since last year.
• 33% average decrease among the four largest public healthcare staffing companies in the nation (AMN, Cross Country, On Assignment, MSN).
• The forecast for healthcare staffing in 2009 has declined by 25%.
• Locum Tenens is the only area that saw growth in 2009 (9%).
• 2009 is the first year that Locums has grown more than travel nursing.
• Predictions for healthcare staffing are flat for 2010, with Locums being the only growth sector.
• ECRI data suggests that the recession is over.
• Most economists believe unemployment will level off at 10% by end of 2009.
• Healthcare reform could have a largely positive impact on the healthcare staffing industry, specifically in the increase for demand in healthcare professionals.
• 48% of hospitals are working with a VMS model.
• VMS is listed in the “threat” category for the industry.
• “Avoidance” is listed as a potential strategy of dealing with VMS.

All of the data presented seemed reasonably accurate. I took exception with some of the data that was derived from self-reporting surveys sent in from staffing suppliers. However, not as much as I did with the SIA’s comments on VMS.

From my point of view, VMS is an evolution of the industry – not a threat or hindrance to it. VMS providers should not be looked at as vendors to the industry but as major participants in the industry. Take ShiftWise for example. The founders and executive team are all from the healthcare staffing industry. We took our knowledge of the industry and used it for the purposes of advancing it - not hindering it. Suggesting that VMS is a threat to me sounds similar to record company executives claiming that digital music is a threat to CD sales. It's an antiquated perception at best.

At this point, VMS makes up almost 50% of the market. If it continues to follow the trend of IT staffing (it’s actually being adopted at a much faster rate) then it’s fair to suggest that it will soon be over 70% of the market. My question to the SIA is this - When VMS reaches this level of adoption in the industry, will it still be a threat to the market – or just the market? It seems to me that anything comprising so much of the market should be looked at as something to better understand, embrace and use to your advantage (read: opportunity). Stating that it is a threat seems to imply it is something that needs to be dealt with and ended. However, it should be obvious now that VMS is not going away.

Finally, Barry also suggested that “avoidance” is a potential strategy for dealing with VMS. While technically he's correct, that yes, on the spectrum of choices - avoidance is an option, how is avoiding something that makes up 50% of the market (and could soon be 70%) a good strategy for anything other than going out of business?

My hope is the same now as it has been for several years - that the SIA will begin to report more accurately on VMS as to what it actually is; an evolution of the industry and an opportunity to grow your business as a staffing supplier and operate it more efficiently. As long as the SIA continues to suggest to the industry that VMS is a threat the suppliers within the industry will continue to miss out on the opportunity that VMS presents.

Related Posts:

Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit [pt. 1]

Notes from the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009

Back in realty here after spending the week at the Healthcare Staffing Summit 2009 put on by Staffing Industry Analysts, I thought I'd give a quick summary of the week.

As always, the Healthcare Staffing Summit was a well organized event, containing lots of valuable information and great networking opportunities. Being held in Washington, D.C. it was high energy and felt like an appropriate venue considering the current politics surrounding healthcare reform. Attendance was noticeably down from previous years but not dramatically so.

The topics for the show covered the spectrum including: healthcare staffing industry data, the economy, selling in the current economy, working with the government, selling IT staffing to hospitals, healthcare vendor management, Locum Tenens and several others. Personally, I always feel that the events and topics on the first day are much better than those on the second day. The second day typically consists of employees from staffing companies sitting on panels and discussing a particular topic related to the industry. However, I always find a lot of these discussions to be stating the obvious and don’t feel there is anything of major value ever being revealed. Fortunately, the sessions from the first day always make the whole event worth it.

I was most happy with and surprised by the discussions on healthcare reform and how it could affect the healthcare staffing industry. Having Tom Daschle there to present this topic was by far the highlight of the event for me.

In addition, the economic news and industry data was of course really depressing but also a sharp dose of reality. And, as always, it was interesting to hear VMS being referred to as a “threat to the industry” by the SIA, even though VMS has now been adopted by 48% of hospitals in the market.

Next week I’ll have several posts containing notes from a few of the sessions I attended. If you weren’t able to attend, hopefully these summaries will provide you with some good information.

The only major complaint I have with the Healthcare Staffing Summit is the cost. As a vendor, it costs us 3-5x as much to set up a booth as it does to attend any other industry conference we go to. (I won't even mention the fact that I don't agree with VMS companies being listed as vendors and not participants) Although it is a really great conference, I’m not sure how these high fees can continue to be justified. I heard this same feedback from several of the attendees and hope that the SIA will reconsider their fees before next years show.

All in all it was a great conference. If you didn’t attend, you certainly missed out.

Healthcare Staffing Industry & Technology Events - September 09

Sept. 9 - 12 / Nurse Management Congress / Chicago, IL.

 Sept. 14 - 17 / SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit / Washington, D.C.

Sept. 21 - 23 / Demo 09 / San Diego, CA.

= I'm attending

July Events - Healthcare Staffing & Technology

July7-11	National Association for Healthcare Recruitment Conference	Seattle, WA.
July 19-22	Staff Development for Educators National Conference	Las Vegas, NV.
July 10-24	OSCON - Open Source Convention	San Jose, CA.
	= I'm Speaking

June Events

June 18-19

Contingent Workforce Strategies Co-employment & Risk Forum

Washington, D.C.

May Events

May 6-12	National Nurses Week	Nationwide
May 20-22	WebVisions	Portland, OR.
	= I'm attending