Staffing a healthcare facility is a lot different than it used to be. In many ways, the staffing challenges we face today have taken on a life of their own. There’s more to understand, more to manage and a growing list of costs involved. And the biggest challenge? The staffing shortage isn’t going away any time soon.
For one thing, humans are living longer. We’re also seeing a rise in chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease that require specialized medical attention. Between new COVID-19 variants and flu season, patient numbers ebb and flow in bigger swings throughout the year. Yet at the same time, we’re seeing more healthcare workers leave the profession or retire faster than they can be replaced. If trends continue, one study predicts we could be facing a shortage of more than 4 million healthcare workers by 2026.1
Despite the discouraging numbers, there is a silver lining. Once you accept that the challenges of short-term staffing are here to stay, you can start to look for a long-term solution. You can consider contract staffing a part of your overall staffing picture instead of just a temporary band-aid. And in order to do that successfully, it helps to have a partner you can trust.
A managed service provider (MSP) is designed to be that partner. At the highest level, an MSP takes the burden off of your team to find qualified, responsible candidates and manage their contracts. A really good MSP will offer transparent consultation, customized tools and personalized support to help you work toward your goals.
With a long-term staffing partner who prioritizes your needs on your side, you can develop a plan to tackle staffing challenges from every angle. Let's consider three major challenges to your role, and uncover how a high-quality MSP can help.
Simply cutting back on the number of contract staffers may help in the short-term, but it’s not a viable long-term solution. If you get rid of temporary staff too fast without filling vacancies, you run the risk of putting more stress on your full-time staff and pushing them to leave. You’ll be stuck with twice as many positions to fill.
Instead, your MSP can help you optimize your staffing usage based on data. Look for a partner who values transparency in their service and software. You should have access to real-time data on how much you’re spending and how often you’re using contract staff today in order to make informed decisions for the future.
Another big advantage of an ongoing MSP relationship is having year-round access to their market insights. As bill rates rise and fall based on supply and demand, your MSP team can continue to reassess how your spend matches the market.
One of the biggest time-saving solutions offered by an MSP is administrative support. When you work with a true MSP partner, they will handle all of the calls and emails from staffing companies that previously went directly to you. MSPs also offer consolidated billing and compliance management leading to big gains in your productivity—especially as your teams get used to working together. The right MSP will match you with one dedicated account manager who serves as your primary point of contact. You’ll know exactly whom to call whenever you need something.
One of the potential costs of forgoing an MSP is having to replace contract staffers who are unqualified, poor culture fits or no-shows. When you don’t have time to properly vet each candidate, you end up spending more to replace them or you create more work for full-time staff and make burnout worse. MSP services include clinical screening and selection based on unique criteria for your environment and expectations. The more familiar a staffing partner is with your culture, the better they can be at sourcing short-term staff who can jump in and help.
No matter what challenges you’re facing, the right MSP will come prepared with solutions that make sense for the current needs of your facility. The RTG Medical MSP program delivers all this and more with a staffing program designed around your way of working, not ours. We specialize in high-touch services that are built on transparency and trust. If you’re interested in learning how we could help solve your staffing challenges, reach out any time.
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1. Source: Oracle