What Does Stronger Economy Mean for Healthcare?

As 2010 winds to a close, it looks like the U.S. economy is finally picking up steam. Recent reports from the U.S. Labor Department, economic analysts and national payroll processor ADP all point to a strong upturn in the job market this fall. For instance, ADP reported a jump of 93,000 new private sector jobs in November, the largest gain in three years. That increase included 79,000 service jobs – including healthcare services.

What does this turnaround on the jobs front mean for the U.S. healthcare industry? One of the most important changes will be an increased competition for administrative, professional and clerical talent.  Many dedicated, hard-working individuals have been attracted to the healthcare sector in recent years because of its perceived job security and stability. While most of these employees will stay in their current positions, others may seek “greener pastures” as the economic recovery moves into business services, financial, real estate and other sectors. Therefore, healthcare organizations can expect to experience slightly higher turnover rates in the coming years.

As the nation’s employment picture gradually improves, there will also be increased competition for new hires. It will become increasingly important for healthcare organizations to enhance their recruitment strategies in order to attract top candidates. Then, those candidates must be carefully screened, tested and interviewed to be sure they are a good match for that position. In working with healthcare clients for more than 20 years, All Medical Personnel believes that effective staffing partnerships are one of the best ways to recruit and screen highly qualified candidates, allowing organizations to focus on their core businesses.  Those partnerships will become even more important in a growing national marketplace.

A Solution to the HR Training Dilemma

What’s the biggest concern for HR managers today?  A number of independent studies put training and development first on the list. A recent study showed that professionals of all ages value ongoing education, while another found training was the biggest issue, followed by retaining top performers and recruiting new talent.

Healthcare organizations also recognize the need for career training and professional development, as physicians, nurses, therapists, laboratory technicians and other personnel seek to improve their skills and broaden their horizons. Advances in medical treatments, surgical techniques, laboratory testing, electronic medical records (EMR) and communications technology are among the many reasons that ongoing training is essential for today’s healthcare professionals. However, many HR managers face a dilemma: “How can I spare a professional who provides critical services for several days of off-site training at a time when demand for our services is rising?”

Fortunately, there is a simple answer to that problem. Bring in a temporary employee to provide those day-to-day services while the physician, nurse or other professional is learning new career skills.  That’s a win-win solution that benefits both the healthcare organization and the individual professional, without disrupting care to patients or clients.  Based on our 20+ years of experience in healthcare staffing, this is a highly effective solution for the HR training and development dilemma.

How Will EMRs Change Healthcare Staffing?

With the staunch support of federal policymakers, electronic medical records (EMRs) are on their way. In the next two years, the U.S. government will be paying out billions of dollars to healthcare organizations to integrate their current medical record systems, which in many cases now include both paper and paperless applications.  There is no question that EMRs offer benefits to the physician who will be able to get a convenient, comprehensive view the patient’s medical history. It will also mean greater portability. For instance, when a primary care physician makes a referral to a specialist, it will be easier to send the patient’s chart, lab reports, radiology scans and other information to the specialist.

However, the move to EMR will be expensive for healthcare organizations. Forrester Research expects spending to reach $50 billion in the U.S. health-information market over the next two years. Most of the cost will be one-time capital investments in new hardware, applications and networking technology. That includes the time and expense of digitizing paper records. But money will also be needed to train both medical and non-medical staffers in new policies and procedures.

In addition, solo practitioners, physician groups, hospitals and other providers may find it necessary to engage healthcare staffing firms to handle the increased workload during the transition period. From our perspective, it makes sense to treat the conversion to EMRs as a short-term project with appropriate staffing.  That allows the work to be done close at hand under the organization’s direct supervision.  All Medical Personnel stands ready to assist our clients in this process.

Staffing Up for Healthcare Reform

If you’re a health services provider wondering about the impact of federal healthcare reform, here’s a quick look at the bottom line. Roughly 30 million previously uninsured Americans will have better access to physicians, hospitals, therapists and ancillary services.  In a nation of 310 million people, that’s nearly a 10 percent increase in projected demand.  Clearly, greater individual access will increase the workload for existing staff members, and healthcare organizations will be challenged to operate as efficiently as possible.

What else will be changing? At the recent Healthcare Summit in Chicago, speakers discussed the greater focus on wellness and preventive care.  After all, healthy individuals make fewer visits to the doctor or ER, need fewer prescriptions and require fewer laboratory tests – a cost benefit to the nation’s healthcare system. But the increasing emphasis on prevention also puts new demands on physicians and other service providers facing a potential onslaught of new patients. In a busy group practice, for instance, who has time to explain glucose monitoring procedures to a new diabetes patient? Who has the expertise to “prescribe” a fitness and flexibility program to an aging senior at risk of a fall?

The healthcare reform legislation will also bring about substantial changes in technology, medical records and reporting procedures.  Patients, providers and government regulators all want more information – while protecting patient privacy and confidentiality at the same time.  That’s another challenging task for healthcare organizations, even those with a high level of internal IT and compliance expertise.

For all these reasons, healthcare organizations should conduct a strategic review of their human resources and begin planning for a changing future.

Serving All Healthcare Organizations

For more than 20 years, All Medical Personnel has provided professional, technical, administrative and clerical staffing services to some of the nation’s largest healthcare organizations.  Our team also takes a great deal of pride in delivering the same high caliber of service to smaller clients, including individual physicians and physician groups,  community hospitals, therapists and ancillary service providers.

Whether your healthcare organization has one location or multiple facilities, it’s essential to have a consistent approach to staffing. That means screening each candidate to be sure that he or she has the proper credentials and training. It also means orienting the candidate, and ensuring the employee understands his or her role, as well as the organization clinical and business priorities. This can be a time-consuming process for internal HR staffers who must multitask every minute of the day.

In that regard, All Medical Personnel can relieve these organizational stresses by recruiting, screening, qualifying and training job candidates. In that way, our dedicated healthcare staffing firm becomes a valued extension of the HR department, regardless of the size of client.  If you would like to learn more about our healthcare staffing services, please click here.

Are You the Ideal Healthcare Employee?

When a healthcare organization considers hiring a new employee, what are the most important factors for the HR team?

Based on All Medical Personnel’s more than 20 years of experience in healthcare staffing, here are the key attributes for a job candidate:

• Training and education. From physicians to nurses to laboratory personnel, a healthcare employee is expected to have completed a specific educational program and built a solid core of job-related skills.

• Experience. A candidate who is already working in the healthcare field is likely to have an edge over a newcomer, all other qualities being equal. That’s because it typically takes less time to orient an experienced candidate to the specific requirements of the job.

• Compliance. A new employee must meet demonstrate compliance with specific regulatory standards. That’s why All Medical Personnel carefully screens candidates to be sure they hold appropriate credentials, and provides additional training, if necessary, on topics like safe practices in a healthcare setting.

• Attitude. For most recruiters, attitude is perhaps even more important than education, training and experience. Is the candidate an upbeat, positive and friendly person filled with energy who will be a real asset to the organization? Or is the applicant a pessimist or deadbeat who would like to coast through the day?

• A team player. In any healthcare organization, services are delivered by a multidisciplinary team, where everyone plays a complementary role. The ideal candidate will understand how his or her role fits in with the entire team.

So, if you are a job candidate seeking a position in healthcare, this list can provide a benchmark for measuring how close you come to the ideal.

For more information on All Medical Personnel’s current healthcare staffing positions, click here.

Living the Lippie Lifestyle!

Are you a Lippie?

For those of you who aren’t up on the latest acronyms, a Lippie is a Location Independent Professional – a physician, nurse, technician, lawyer or accountant with the ability to work anywhere in the country, or around the world. In other words, “have laptop, will travel”!

In the healthcare sector, an experienced professional with the right qualifications can enjoy the many benefits of a Lippie lifestyle, beginning with the freedom to choose where to work. For instance, a Lippie could work in the Midwest or Northeast during the warm summer months, enjoy the scenic foliage in the fall and spend the winter in Florida, Texas or the Carolinas.

A newly single professional might decide to start fresh in a new community, without necessarily making a permanent commitment. Other healthcare professionals find becoming a Lippie allows them to leave an unfulfilling position, make a lateral career move or explore a new job opportunity. It’s an ideal way to enjoy the security of a regular paycheck while moving ahead with your professional and personal life.

While the term “Lippie” is brand new, All Medical Personnel has been working closely with mobile professionals for more than two decades. Today, we connect Lippies with U.S. hospitals, physician groups, laboratories and other healthcare organizations seeking quality professionals to work for a few weeks, several months or a year or longer. If you’re considering a change, just Contact Us for more information about our placement services.