Long term, is it realistic to get rid of all of your agency nurses? Jacalyn Liebowitz of Adventist Health doesn't think so. Watch as she explains why "agency is AN answer, but it's not the only answer."  ..read more

What’s all the talk about supposed MSP 'Vendor Neutrality' in healthcare staffing?  Now that the contract labor spend is dropping for most hospitals around the country, many are taking a closer look at how their supply chain for temporary personnel is performing. Prudent executives realize the drop in contract labor today doesn’t preclude another crisis staffing situation in the future. It is always better to prepare and take precautions before a crisis than to try to fight fires in the midst of it.  One of the strategies in the human capital space for over 20 years has been the pro ..read more

In April of 2024, Tim Teague, President of BlueSky Synergy, joined a team from Adventist Health to discuss why they decided to become their own MSP, how they run their internal staffing agency and how it generates revenue to help fund other healthcare staffing initiatives ..read more

Pandemic era healthcare labor costs rose to crisis levels across the country. Much of these costs were fueled by the sudden surge in agency nursing labor costs. Supplemental labor became a growing percentage of total workforce expense. Since workforce comprises the greatest cost to healthcare institutions, this caused financial stress in systems around the country. Despite Federal and some State assistance, these funds could not match the growth in demand. Crisis rates for travel nurse contracts were at an unsustainable level. Members of congress had even communicated with the White House tha ..read more

The landscape of healthcare staffing agencies in the U.S. has shifted significantly, with fewer agencies dominating the market. This trend can be attributed to several factors:   Rise of Managed Service Providers (MSPs): The emergence of MSPs in the healthcare industry has played a pivotal role. MSPs streamline the process by acting as intermediaries between healthcare providers and staffing agencies. They handle tasks such as vendor management, billing, and dispute resolution, which simplifies operations for healthcare facilities. Many hospitals opt for MSPs to consolidate their intera ..read more

BlueSky Medical Staffing Software today announced an innovative feature to its flagship platform. The BlueSky Network establishes a direct connection between participating staffing agencies and the hospitals they staff when both are connected to the BlueSky Network. Reducing duplicate work and speeding time-to-fill, both the agency and hospital will benefit from enhanced efficiency and accuracy in job orders. “We’ve been asked for this feature for a long time,” said BlueSky President, Tim Teague. “When an agency has to log into two different systems just to get a job order into their BlueSky ..read more

Recently, while visiting a loved one in a palliative care unit at a local Nashville hospital, I had a conversation with a dedicated nurse that opened my eyes to the challenges faced by healthcare professionals. This nurse, passionate about helping those in need, candidly shared the stress that had begun to wear on her. As we delved into the heart of the matter, she pointed to staffing as her primary concern. Her experience shed light on a critical issue affecting hospitals nationwide ..read more

In the dynamic landscape of healthcare staffing, the last decade has witnessed a remarkable transformation, largely propelled by the expansion and execution of the Managed Service Provider (MSP). This evolution has not only brought about unprecedented opportunities for staffing agencies but has also revolutionized the way healthcare institutions are connected to contract labor ..read more

Traveling around through various associations and conferences, I hear the same refrain; “we’re going to eliminate travelers and contract labor”. That sound like music to the CFO’s ears, but is it be realistic? In some cases, a laser like focus on staffing models can have that impact. However, the $63B in temp staffing nationwide presents a different picture ..read more

As governmental funding for pandemic staffing has wound down, the bottom line for hospitals has taken a serious hit. Organizations with the highest labor costs during 2022 spent an average of $465M1. Large organizations such as Kaiser Permanente and Banner Health1took a serious hit during that period of explosive staffing costs ..read more