You recently entered into a licensing and co-marketing agreement with Cross Country Staffing, could tell me a bit about Cross Country and ShiftWise. Additionally, could you explain the importance of this agreement?
Cross Country is the largest and perhaps best known nurse travel agency in the nation. They have a great reputation for meeting the needs of hospitals all across the nation by delivering high-quality service when placing qualified nurses at client locations across the nation.
ShiftWise is a Vendor Management Services (VMS) company that delivers VMS, Internal Resource Pool (IRP) Management, Shift Bidding and Time Keeping software and services to hospitals all across the nation. We are currently working with over 300 hospitals, 400 staffing agencies and 10 state hospital associations.
This agreement will allow Cross Country to introduce our services to their client locations. Doing so presents a win-win-win for hospitals, Cross Country and ShiftWise.
Hospitals benefit because they will receive a service that allows them to fully automate and manage supplemental staffing needs while reducing the time and costs associated with such processes. In addition, they have the benefit of working with Cross Country, who will quickly deliver professional and qualified candidates to fill their requests for staff.
For Cross Country - Cross Country is looked at as an innovator in the industry by realizing the value of a VMS partnership and delivering such value added services to their clients. In addition, Cross Country is reducing their sales and staffing costs and time associated with obtaining and filling client needs, and is able to focus more directly on recruitment and staffing because of the efficiencies of the ShiftWise application.
For ShiftWise - ShiftWise is able to expand its client base and demonstrate the value of our products, services and solutions in this industry to both hospitals and staffing agencies across the nation.
Can you explain how online vendor management services work?
Similar to booking a plane ticket online, online VMS systems allow hospitals to tap into the largest possible pool of qualified, fully credentialed staff and choose the ones they want for each shift or assignment based on criteria such as matching credentials, qualifications, skill set, price, previous performance scores, previous visits, shift conditions and overtime hours. This ensures a lower vacancy rate for the hospital and also that the filled positions will be placed with the best qualified and most cost effective candidate possible. In addition to locating staff and filling orders, hospitals can also approve and reconcile time slips and invoices online and pull valuable reporting data from the system that allows them to control and better their usage of supplemental staffing.
Can you describe the deployment process?
Unlike traditional software scheduling systems, ShiftWise is delivered via the Web and is incredibly user friendly. We have gone to great lengths to design the system for people who typically don´t like using or are afraid to use software. Because of this, training time is minimal and typically takes less than one week for an entire hospital system and less than one half of a day for a staffing agency. In addition, since our services are delivered over the Web there is nothing to install and no need for the IT department from the hospital to even be involved.
How Are staffing agencies responding to online VMS services?
Initially the response was not very good. We actually had agencies boycotting us and threatening us with lawsuits at one point. I´m sure there are still agencies out there that wished VMS was never invented. However, I believe the majority of them have accepted the inevitability of it and can no longer deny the demand for such services. Many staffing agencies, however, are actually now embracing the technology and services and have realized the benefits they receive as well. Several agencies have built interfaces to ShiftWise that eliminate the duplication of entry with their internal system that is necessary without an interface. Once they begin working efficiently with our system, their staffing time and costs begin to drop as their revenue increases because they are able to focus more on filling shifts. Further, since the majority of the employees at ShiftWise come from staffing agencies, we have gone to great lengths to include features that benefit agencies, as well as hospitals. We are at a point now where staffing agencies are licensing specific products and functionality from us.
What are some of the common staffing complaints of HR professionals?
HR professionals often complain about the overall process for locating staff. When a hospital has a need for supplemental staff they typically start by making phone calls to all of their staff. From there they call staffing agencies. At this point they have to deal with numerous phone calls, emails and they must wade through reams of profile paper work coming in via fax just to book someone to work one shift. Often times, hospitals limit the amount of agencies with which they work because of the administrative burden of doing so. This also reduces their chances of getting their needs filled. The other complaints tend to be related to the potential lack of proper orientation and credential compliance of outside staff. Finally, there is typically no way of tracking the schedules or cost of the use of supplemental staff. Therefore, there is a feeling of a lack of proper management and control over the whole process.
What is the biggest benefit of these systems to HR professionals?
Essentially, VMS systems like ShiftWise, address all of these issues. VMS systems allow hospitals to communicate instantly with all of their internal staff and/or staffing agencies. Within seconds they receive an electronic response back and can go online at their convenience to review each candidates profile and select the best person for each shift. Each candidate listed is guaranteed to meet all of the hospital and credentialing requirements for each unit. Therefore, the hospital knows each candidate is qualified. VMS systems allow for management through one, consolidated medium and provide for excellent reporting data including cost and trend analysis. Finally, with a VMS system, it is just as easy to work with 100 staffing agencies as it is 1 because the administrative burden of doing so is removed. Therefore, the hospital increases its odds of getting 100% of its shifts filled because it does not need to limit its suppliers.
Can you outline some of the other benefits of these services?
There are several benefits to online VMS. These services allow hospitals to control staffing in a way that has never been possible before by consolidating staff search, booking, billing and record-keeping in one place, with an easy-to-use interface. The primary result of having access to the largest possible pool of qualified, credentialed and available internal and agency staff is higher fill rates for hospitals with open shifts. These systems help hospitals end their own staffing shortage by optimizing the usage of their own resources and reducing their dependency on outside labor.
These online services require no IT resources on the part of hospitals or agencies, and are provided with 24x7 live customer support and on-site training. Finally, these services provide more than just technology, benefits include: 24x7x365 live customer support, contract management, management, budgetary and statistical reporting, On-site live training and continuous training
Founder & Vice President of Business Development - Jason Lander
Jason Lander brings years of healthcare staffing industry experience to ShiftWise. As the company's founder, he applied his industry knowledge to create ShiftWise's one-source vendor management service, which delivers easy-to-use automated staffing solutions to the healthcare industry. Jason has been instrumental in establishing ShiftWise as the leading provider of online healthcare staffing services to over 250 hospitals, 10 hospital associations and hundreds of staffing agencies.
Before founding ShiftWise in 2003, Jason spent several years in the healthcare staffing industry working for both regional and national companies including Medical Staffing Network, Inc., where he led sales initiatives as the North West Regional sales manager. In addition, he worked as the sales manager at STAT Medical Services. Prior to this, he worked with the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Senator, Ron Wyden where he worked extensively on labor and veterans issues. Jason served as an Infantry Section Leader and Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps from 1994 - 1998.
Jason Lander earned a B.S. in political science with a minor in community development from Portland State University.