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Top Healthcare Staffing News of 2010 and Predictions for 2011

At the end of 2009 we recapped the top stories in the healthcare staffing industry and made our predictions for healthcare staffing industry trends in 2010. As 2010 now comes to a close, it's interesting to see how we did on these predictions, reflect on industry events in 2010 and make some predictions on healthcare staffing trends in 2011.

The Healthcare Staffing Industry in 2010

Healthcare Staffing and the Economy 2011
The macro economic effects on the healthcare staffing industry were still the big stories this year. The SIA's 2010 Healhtcare Staffing Summit gave us all some great insight and data on this topic. While not as dire as the economic downturn in 2009, the news was still mostly a downer.

In 2010 hospitals still struggled with everything from reduced budgets to nationwide nursing strikes. All of this caused hospital job growth to slow dramatically and negatively impacted the revenue for the entire industry. While the revenue dropped for almost every company (large and small) in the healthcare staffing industry, perhaps the most notable news was learning Medical Staffing Network filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

The bad economy also claimed a few tech companies in the healthcare staffing industry in 2010. One of the largest was Healthcare VMS provider, Symbio Solutions, who filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

Negative changes in the economy produce acquisitions in every industry and the healthcare staffing industry was no exception. ABRY Partners made news with their acquisition of Comforce late in the year. However, the biggest merger news of 2010 was AMN's acquisition of Medfinders. This alliance will definitely be a game changer in 2011, particularly on the vendor management side of things.

There was also a lot of news this year regarding healthcare staffing tech company acquisitions. Concerro was one of the first, expanding their client base and service offerings by acquiring Res-Q Healthcare Systems. More significantly, however, were the acquisitions of Medefis by OnWard Healthcare and Symbio Solutions by Broadlane. Broadlane picked up the remaining assets from Symbio's bankruptcy and Onward Healthcare made a bold move by acquiring the once, vendor neutral, Medefis VMS technology.

New Technology Products for Healthcare Staffing in 2010
2010 also brought the introduction of some new software applications to the industry. Tweetdeck announced a new tool for recruiters called Job Deck, while Concerro launched their new IPhone scheduling app. Amistaff also launched a fantastic new product called Prophecy to help hospitals with employee hiring assessments. Finally, we can't leave out our or own product - ePromoter. Staffing Robot launched ePromoter in September as the first email marketing software designed and created specifically for managing healthcare staffing email marketing campaigns.

Successful Marketing Strategies for Healthcare Staffing Companies in 2010
This year, healthcare staffing companies found their most successful marketing efforts on the web. There were many changes to both search and social marketing this year that companies had to pay attention to. While Bing made itself a respected search competitor, Google decided it was time for their searches to get more social. And then Bing got really social by being the first search engined allowed to search facebook.

Although many things changed this year for social media marketing, the top stories were all about Facebook. Facebook is perhaps the best place for healthcare staffing companies to market on the web. The biggest news from Facebook was the announcement of their new 'Like' button. This simple button is changing a lot on the web in terms of how companies interact with their audience. It even started getting people asking which was more important - search engine or social network optimization.

Another marketing strategy some healthcare staffing companies took in 2010 was rebranding. Access Nurses became Aya Healthcare and Broadlane rebranded their VMS division to Prolucent. The biggest news, however, was the fact that AMN rebranded after some large acquisitions and expanding their service offerings.

Staffing Robot
Our company also went through a lot of changes this year. The most significant change being that we went from simply being a healthcare staffing blog to a full service website design and marketing company for the healthcare staffing industry. We also launched a healthcare industry news service called The Healthcare Staffing Report. Look for more changes from us in this next year as we continue to grow, expand our service offerings and launch new staffing related software products.

So, like we said, 2010 was a very eventful year for the healthcare staffing industry. So what will the next year bring?

Our Predictions for Healthcare Staffing in 2011

Further Consolidation of Staffing Agencies and Tech Companies
Although there was a lot of acquisition activity in 2010 we haven't seen the end of it. Unfortunately, many healthcare staffing agencies are still hoping for a major rebound in the economy to keep them in business. When this doesn't happen they will be looking to sell. In addition, stronger partnerships and mergers amongst small to medium players are going to be necessary to compete with the size of companies like AMN.

Tech companies in the healthcare staffing industry will be no exception. In the last decade, many tech companies have started in the healthcare staffing industry. Several of them have realized that considerable capital backing is necessary to fully realize their opportunity. Therefore, we'll see a lot of these companies forming partnerships or selling to larger, better capitalized players who can successfully deliver their offerings.  

Note to future self: Be honest about revenue and its cost of acquisition. If it's not working out - call it a day or change your game.

Success of the MSP Model
The SIA predicts that by the end of 2011 over 90% of hospitals will have adopted a VMS solution. While we don't believe it will be quite that high, hospital adoption of VMS is certain to continue increasing. In the last two years the vendor neutral, tech model has failed to prove its success when competing against the MSP model at large health systems. In addition, the MSP model has had a major resurgence of success in the last two years as hospitals have cared less about vendor neutrality and more about the successful outsourcing of their entire staffing operation.

As big companies like AMN continue to improve these offerings through technology, process and acquisitions, they will become more of a dominant service offering in the industry. If you're not AMN, figuring out your strategy on how to thrive in the presence of this new model is highly advised.

Note to future self:  Starting your own VMS offering is not the answer.

Greater Success with Web Marketing
2011 will be the year healthcare staffing companies realize the value of marketing on the web. More and more companies in the space are developing mobile web applications and launching successful social media campaigns as a way to grow their audience and increase their revenue. In 2011, understanding how to succeed on the web will become more critical than ever before. Many companies in this space are still wondering if there is any real value here and spending months analyzing (read: guessing) at the ROI they'll receive on their efforts. Beat them by doing the opposite.
 

Note to future self:  Stop guessing - start acting.

 

 Healthcare Reform
How healthcare reform effects the healthcare staffing industry will once again become a major topic as companies prepare to deal with some of the reform aspects that begin in 2012.

Note to future self:  Start preparing for this in 2008 - the good and the bad. 

Industry Innovation
At the end of 2009 we predicted that 2010 would bring about some new innovation for the healthcare staffing industry. Sadly, we were wrong here. It was mostly business as usual in this area as most tech companies just focused on how to stay in business. Hopefully this year we will see new tech innovations from some of the larger players or new comers in the market.

Note to future self:  Make your idea a reality.

 

The Market Will Rebound
Oh! A very bold prediction indeed! In 2009 we predicted the market would return in mid 2011. We're holding to that prediction. Almost every company we speak with is seeing positive signs that the market is turning around. Although no one expects this year to return to pre 2008 levels, any improvement will be welcomed. The SIA also put out some encouraging data for next year supporting this prediciton:

Note to future self:  Innovate and run a better business so I'm prepared for the market return.

 

Your Predictions
It's been another exciting year being in this industry. Time will tell what 2011 has in store for all of us. What are your predictions for healthcare staffing in 2011? If you have any, please share them here.

We wish you all happy holidays and much success in the new year. See you in 2011!

Related Posts

Top Healthcare Staffing Stories of 2009 and Predictions for 2010

Wrap Up From The Healthcare Staffing Summit 2010

We spent this week at the Healthcare Staffing Summit in Chicago. I've gone to this conference for the last 8 years and I have to say I felt this year was one of the best conferences ever. Even though the industry data presented wasn't anything to celebrate, it did appear there was some light at the end of the tunnel.

Aside from the data it was a great networking opportunity and the venue at the Palmer House Hilton was amazing. We met lots of great people doing some very interesting things and attended many sessions that provided invaluable information. Also, as a company, Staffing Robot, was honored to speak on a panel about social media marketing that was well attended and full of great participation from the audience.

Here is a summary of some of the highlights from my notes throughout the week.

Barry Asin's Keynote: Succeeding in A Time of Change

As usual, Barry Asin kicked off the summit providing lots of great information about the industry. Of all the data presented, perhaps the most shocking was that in 2010, spend on healthcare staffing has been cut to $7.9B. For comparision, in 2006 it was at $10.1B.

• Unemployment continues to be a huge negative factor for the overall economy. As of August, unemployment still remains high at 9.64%.
• Hospitals have continued to decrease their spending on contract labor as this unemployment number has increased.
• Even though the data is negative for contract labor, full employment remained a relative bright spot in the overall economy. Much of this employment growth occurred in ambulatory settings.
• Many hospitals have or are in the process of implementing internal resource pools but need assistance in consulting, recruiting and the staffing managment. Agencies should see opportunity in helping hospitals manage internal resource pools. 
• VMS/MSP adoption continues to accelerate. The Staffing Industry Analysts suggest that hospitals have adopted VMS at a rate of over 70% and MSP of over 50%. Personally, I question these numbers. Although there has been widespread acceptance, this number seems very high to me. Regardless, the lesson here though is that buyers prefer to consolidate their suppliers.
• 2010 spend on healthcare staffing cut to $7.9B. In 2006 it was $10.1B.
• Private healthcare staffing company revue is improving. However, becaue of previous losses, they are still in the negative.
• Major industry events this year:
  • L.A. Times article criticizes temp nurses ‐ Dec. 2009
  • Symbio VMS sold in bankruptcy court ‐ Feb 2010
  • Healthcare Reform Passes –March 2010
  • MSN files ch. 11 and acquired by creditors – July 2010
  • AMN announces acquisition of Medfinders – July 2010
  • MedAssets acquires Broadlane – Sept 2010
• The overall forecast for 2010 for spending on healthcare staffing shows a slight improvement of 1% and a 10% improvement for locums tenens.
• Data suggests that the nursing shortage won't return in full swing until 2018.
• Older nurses make great candidates to recruit. Many of these nurses are looking for supportive and flexible work arrangements and practices (e.g. modified workloads, flexible scheduling options, reduction in hours of work, etc.).
• Hospitals expect four key things from contingent workers: Quality, Efficiency, Cost (not just rates, but true costs of the overall program) Risk (How much do I really have? Should we
  mitigate or eradicate? What’s best for the business?)
• Of all the temp industries, healthcare uses the fewest amount of contingent labor and has the worst perception of contingent labor.
• The rank of the largest healthcare staffing firms by revenue has changed. Most notably, Cross Country was pushed down to the 3rd spot by CHG Healthcare:
• The impact of healthcare reform on the staffing industry is still largely unknown. Some of the reforms (such as additional coverage) will have a positive impact, while others (employer mandates) will be mostly negative.
• The overall healthcare staffing industry forecast for next year does show some slight imrovement

Social Media: No Longer a Hobby

We spoke on a panel about Social Media Marketing for Healthcare Staffing Agencies. Because of the other topics at the same time, I was expecting a small turnout. However, we actually had a packed room with people standing around in the back. The audience was very much interested and engaged in the topic, which made for a great discussion.

 

 

 

 

I intend to blog more about this session in a separate post but here are some of the highlights and questions from the discussion:

• Definition of Social Media: Social media is defined by the act of sharing content in
  and between social networks regardless of the content type.
• Who owns Social Media: Marketing? President/Owner? Recruiters? Sales?
• Value (why participate) in Social Media: It’s cool and fun - I don’t, I leave it for the young people - It is a time sink, so I don’t - I love it, it is how I keep up with everything.
• What’s relevant and what’s not: Blogs, Micro-blogging (Twitter), Video sharing, Social CRM (Jigsaw, InsideView), Facebook vs. LinkedIn – Facebook and LinkedIn.
• How do you create good content and how do you keep people engaged?
• How can I ensure my staff are using social media properly?
• When engaging in social media, what should I be measuring and tracking and what tools can I use to do this?
• How can staffing agencies 'control' their brand and employee/customer particiaption in social media?
• What are the legal considerations of social media?

Brace Yourself. VMS Is Here to Stay, So What Do We Do About It?

VMS is always a contentious topic and this years discussion was no exception. Many people expressed many concerns they have about Vendor Management Services (VMS), mostly around the Managed Services Provider (MSP) model.

I did think it was great that the panel was mostly talking about VMS and defined VMS strictly as being the technology delivery model, not to be confused with the MSP model. Yes! Also, Dana Shaw is my favorite panel moderator, as she is always very energetic and entertaining.

Although the panel provided some interesting information I did think it was somewhat odd that they only had 1 (non SIA) participant and this person was not from a healthcare VMS background. Surely having someone from Medefis, Prolucent or ShiftWise would have added significant value and perspective to the topic. Unfortunately, much of what the panel participant had to say was not relevant to healthcare staffing.

Here are some of the other highlights from my notes:

• VMS panel claim: "VMS has faster adoption if it is accompanied with a service program." This simply isn't true. Pure play VMS tech companies have had a much higher acceptance/adoption than those accompanied by a service. Barry Asin's keynote data even suggested that hospitals have adopted VMS at a rate of over 70% and MSP of over 50%.
• One of the things the panel did do was attempt to dispell a huge VMS myth: VMS companies keep vendors from talking to their clients. The reality is that the client sets these rules. The VMS is just the tech.
• The biggest issue healthcare staffing companies still face with VMS tech companies is that disparate systems keep the complications of working with VMS high. There is no systems standardization.  The hosptials and staffing agencies are all using different systems and then 5 - 10 different VMS systems are sitting in the middle.
• VMS panel claim: "No buyer really wants vendor neutrality. Vendor neutrality is dead." Again, I couldn't disagree with this more. When vendor neutral, VMS tech first appeared in the industry it was all the rage for 3 - 4 years. Since then, the managed services model has made a big come back. However, suggesting that there is no longer a demand for vendor neutrality is not accurate.
• VMS panel claim: Avg fee for VMS is 1/2% - 10 years ago it was 5-7%. Again, this data is inaccurate. I know that every MSP charges 3 - 5% and all of the big VMS tech players charge 2 - 4%. So, I'm not sure how they are getting to this number.

In short, it was a great conference. If you've never attended I highly encourage you to do so. It's the best signle event for getting industry data, networking, checking out your competition and learning more about new things in the industry.

See you next year!

 

Shortage of Physicians in the U.S. Only Getting Worse

This article from the Wall Street Journal talks about the increasing shortage of physicians in the U.S. and how it looks as though it will only get worse. To make matters worse, many people believe that the new healthcare reform act will cause more people to consume healthcare resources, thereby increasing the need for healthcare professionals even more.

"It will probably take 10 years to even make a dent into the number of doctors that we need out there," said Atul Grover, the AAMC's chief advocacy officer.

Obviously an increased need for healthcare professionals will benefit the healthcare staffing industry. However, many measures need to be taken to ensure the shortage doesn't grow to severe. Even though healthcare reform will positively affect the healthcare staffing industry, too severe of a shortage will hurt us all as a country. Unfortunately, the healthcare reform bill did not go far enough in addressing the growing need for healthcare professionals.

Proponents of the new health-care law say it does attempt to address the physician shortage. The law offers sweeteners to encourage more people to enter medical professions, and a 10% Medicare pay boost for primary-care doctors.

This map is a great visualization of the shortage of physicians across the country.

Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Staffing & Civility

Last week Healthcare Reform legislation was finally made into law. It's no secret that I've been a big proponent of this idea and written several blog posts on how healthcare reform will affect healthcare staffing agencies. Although I'm happy this legislation exists and will hopefully continue to improve I am disappointed it didn't go far enough. My hope was that we would have a universal healthcare system with coverage for all. Not yet it seems.

I've already blogged about how I believe healthcare reform will benefit the healthcare staffing industry and mentioned articles where some of the nation's largest medical staffing agency CEOs also state that healthcare reform will benefit the industry. Therefore, there's no reason to repeat myself. Now that the legislation is on the books and more details are known, I'm sticking with my prediction that this legislation will be positive for the healthcare staffing industry.

Of course, how this legislation is carried out will determine the exact changes we all see and feel. There are several sources around the web that have posted summaries on some of the most immediate changes the healthcare reform legislation will make.

To me, the biggest question here is about the cost and potential tax increases we will all face as individuals and businesses. According to this interactive tool from the Washington Post, neither my premiums nor my personal taxes will increase due to healthcare reform. The really good news is that my premiums were expected to rise between 10-15% before "Obamacare," so I'm going to see this as being positive.

For businesses, it now appears that not providing health insurance to your employees will earn you a penalty. It will be interesting to see if this legislation changes the classifications or definitions of employees as to when insurance has to be provided. However, most large companies already provide insurance for all of their internal employees and offer it as a benefit to their field staff who meet qualifying hours. Therefore, there should be no impact to most healthcare staffing agencies in this regard. For new and small healthcare staffing companies (under 50 employees) there is even better news. Not only will these companies avoid potential penalties for lack of employee insurance provisions, they can qualify for stipends to provide insurance to their employees. This will offer tremendous assistance to start-up companies who otherwise couldn't offer coverage.

Unfortunately, big businesses will most likely see a tax increase to help pay for all the new legislation. Although I'm not a fan of paying more in taxes, I'm also not 'anti-tax' across the board. Paying taxes for certain things that benefit society, such as healthcare, is a good thing. I'm one of those crazies that believes in the greater good so I'm willing to pay a little more for it.

Many people disagree with this view completely and feel that healthcare reform is nothing short of socialism and the end of the American Empire. During a recent webinar hosted by the Staffing Industry Analysts, many CEO's of large staffing companies were discussing how detrimental this legislation will be to their business and all the other horrible things healthcare reform will bring. I've even had people on my blog leave comments and send me emails suggesting the same. For example, Randy Mensinger from Custom Healthcare left a comment on one of my healthcare reform blog posts stating he feels this will put the company he works for (and many others) out of business. He was so upset with my opinion that he even followed up on my comment with an email full of obscenities and calling me all kinds of things I won't repeat here.

So obviously not everyone shares my opinion. I'm willing to admit I could be wrong. If I am and businesses have to start carrying such a heavy tax burden that it puts them out of business I'll be right back here advocating against healthcare reform. I completely respect an opposing view and honest debate on healthcare reform. However, there are several things I don't understand, such as:

1. Being disrespectful and unprofessional to each other. It doesn't matter who you are, but, if you work for or represent a staffing company in our small industry I don't think it benefits you in any way to be unprofessional and disrespectful.
2. Where was the vociferous anti-tax movement during the bush years when we were spending trillions of dollars on an unjust war that was started for made up reasons? Perhaps if we hadn't spent so much money then (and now) we'd have money for things like healthcare for our citizens.
3. Many people are up in arms about the mandate that every American will be required to have health insurance. However, the health insurance mandates are actually a Republican idea. These mandates are only going to benefit the health insurance industry and those politicians beholden to this industry. So clearly their outcry is merely political posturing.
4. Even if you're against the new legislation what exactly is getting people so angry about healthcare reform? How is providing health coverage to our citizens something to get violent over?

No matter how you feel, what we all really need is information, facts and a real debate. Much of the information coming from the media is full of sensational, unfounded claims. It's not only irresponsible, it's dangerous. Unfortunately, without reinstating the Fairness Doctrine it's only going to get worse. For example, this video:

I'm all for free speech but when this much hateful, misinformed rhetoric is pumped through the media for several hours a day, every day, it's no wonder people are resorting to violence against members of congress over something like healthcare reform. There are many reasons justifying the call for revolution. However, I assure you, healthcare reform is not one of them.

In summary, I truly believe that healthcare reform will benefit us as individuals and as a country. It will be a huge win for the healthcare staffing industry. That said, I'm not a fan of the government and will watch the outcomes of this legislation closely and with a critical eye. I am also willing to admit when I'm wrong. Therefore, if the sky starts falling or we witness the collapse and devastation of the medical staffing industry, you'll see me at the next tea party rally.

I hope the opposite is also true. If you're an opponent of this legislation and none of these horrible things come to pass it would be great to hear you admit you were wrong someday.

Time will tell.

What if Booking A Plane Ticket Worked Like Our Healthcare System?

Whether you're for or against healthcare reform I think it's difficult to argue that our current system is working.

Think about the services you make use of every day from business to personal. Booking a hotel, finding a photo online, sharing information with your friends, or managing your internal work projects. Imagine if any of these services were as difficult to work with as our current healthcare system. Would you continue to use them?

Not being a big fan of the government, what shocks me is that, in this case, we're not talking about the government running something inefficiently. We're talking about private business. It's the private insurance companies that have failed to deliver a viable model or useful service when it comes to healthcare. How people can continue to support this broken system when they would have no tolerance for a similar level of service from the services they use everyday is beyond me.

This video is a parody of what it would be like to book a plane ticket with a travel agency that had a business model similar to our current healthcare system. Makes you think.

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!

Unanimous Vote Creates Largest RN Union in U.S. History

This week saw the formation of the largest nursing union in the history of the U.S. The National Nurses United organizes over 150,000 nurses by uniting the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee with the Massachusetts Nursing Association and some members of the United American Nurses. The goal of the new union is to influence healthcare reform and improve the quality of care through efforts such as extending California’s patient ratio law to other states.

Dec. 7, 2009 - To standing cheers, delegates to the founding convention of the National Nurses United (NNU) today unanimously endorsed the creation of the largest union and professional organization of registered nurses in U.S. history - and projected a major escalation in campaigns to expand union representation of nurses and an expanded voice in healthcare reform.

via www.nursezone.com

Healthcare Reform & Healthcare Staffing: The Debate Continues

When I started my blog I promised myself I wouldn't talk about politics. However, since then, the heatlhcare debate went into full swing. This is an incredibly important issue to me and therefore, hard to ignore. I've blasted out several tweets and written some previous posts on why I think we need reform and what changes healthcare reform will bring to medical staffing. This has put me in the middle of a few debates with some people. 

This week I spent some time in Canada and wrote a post about how healthcare staffing works with our northern neighbors based on the conversations I had with some people on my trip. Gregg Dourgarian of TempWorks and the staffing blog - Staffing Talk wrote a rebuttal to this post. I was going to comment back on his blog but my response grew past an appropriate length for a comment. Therefore, below is my response to Gregg's post.

Of course it's easy to find examples of inefficiently run government healthcare systems as Gregg's post talks about. And yes, there are several stories of unsatisfied Canadian’s coming to the states for care, just as there are several stories of unsatisfied American’s who turn to Canada for care and cheaper medications. But lets be honest, you can also find the same inefficiencies in the private sector. It’s fair to say that both solutions are imperfect. However, according to the stats, the vast majority of Canadian's are satisfied with their system of care.

What about the current government run healthcare programs in this country such as Medicare, Medicaid and the V.A.? If you asked people receiving healthcare from one of these sources if they want their “government healthcare” taken away to be given private insurance instead I'd be surprised if you found any takers. When I left the military I received care from the V.A. for several years. It was some of the best, most efficient, cost effective care I’ve received to date. Everything I’ve done since with my private insurance has been a costly hassle.

In regard to my comment on "unnecessary for-profit medical centers." Often times, private hospitals, clinics and imaging centers will establish their entities next to competing medical centers creating a shortage of staff and a glut of beds or imaging equipment such as MRI’s. This equipment and these facilities are expensive. Their cost, as well as the increased demand now created for staff increases our country's overall healthcare costs. In addition, many of these private facilities get money from the government to start their new operations which comes from tax dollars.

These facilities are unnecessary in terms of needing more beds or care options in a particular area that already had a lack of demand. This situation has happened several times here in the Portland market causing situations of vacancy in the newly established medical center, as well as exacerbating those in the centers with which they’re competing. These new centers exist for one reason - to create profits for the individuals that establish them. While often times the newly established medical center offers lower prices and different medical options in order to compete, (thereby providing “the consumer with choice” as it was put in the Staffing Talk post), the greater cost of healthcare to society as a whole increases from these situations. You may personally save a $1 today but you’ll pay $5 tomorrow.

There's no question that having a privately run healthcare system in the U.S. has led to major advancements in healthcare and medicine for the world as a whole. However, what good are these innovations if the vast majority of Americans (or people in the world) can’t afford them and therefore, are denied access to them? I am a big believer in keeping things private and also believe that government creates bureaucracies and inefficiencies in most things it touches. However, the private sector has been running things for years and that is why we are now in this mess. If the private sector could deliver on its promise in healthcare we wouldn’t even be having a debate.

The costs of healthcare are simply too high, the system is broken and we need a new solution. Here's what private companies and a private healthcare system have produced for us over the last 8 years:

• Average family incomes are lower now than they were 8 years ago.
• What employers paid for workers increased by 25%, all due to healthcare costs. These costs are expected to rise by another 10% in the next year alone.
• The average cost of a health insurance policy for family of 4 from 2000 – 2007 more than doubled – from $6,000 to $13,000.
• 62% of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by healthcare costs.
• We spend 50% more on healthcare than any other country and yet:
• • The U.S. is 45th in the world when it comes to infant mortality – behind Cuba.
  • When it comes to life expectancy the U.S. is 50th – behind Bosnia and South Korea. 
  • The U.S. is the only industrialized country without healthcare for its citizens.
  • 47 million Americans are without health insurance, 8.7 million are children.

I appreciate the debate Gregg. And, while although I agree that most things in this country should be run by private enterprise, healthcare is not one of them.

Related Posts:

How Healthcare Reform Will Affect the Healthcare Staffing Industry
 

Healthcare Staffing: Canadian Style

I spent the last couple of days in Canada and learned some interesting things.

1. Lots of people really do say "eh" and "a boat" (about)
2. It's really a lot colder that far North
3. Vancouver is a beautiful city and has tons of great restaurants
4. Green traffic lights blink for some reason
5. The walk sign (little white light man) is different than the one in the states

I also met with a Canadian based company that makes staffing software for hospitals and they gave me some interesting information on healthcare staffing in Canada such as:

• All hospital census is always at 100%. There are 0 vacancies. The theories as to why were everything from - there is a waiting list for care in Canada and no beds are ever empty to - there are too many, unnecessary for-profit healthcare delivery organizations in the states causing a consistent census gap, mismanagement and poor staffing.
• All hospitals employees are unionized and the same organizations that run the educational centers for healthcare professionals negotiate on behalf of the unions.
• All of the hospitals are not for profit and effectively owned by the government.
• Due to all of this, there is little to no market for healthcare staffing agencies in Canada even though there is still a shortage of healthcare professionals.
• When polled, consistently, the people of Canada approve of their healthcare system by 80+%
• The company I met with also makes payroll systems for countries all over the world and claimed that 1) the U.S. has the most complicated tax laws over any other country and that 2) no other country they work with has local or regional taxes.

This information is anecdotal, as it came from a handful of people. However, I'm interested in learning more about it so I'll be doing more research on it. If anyone else has information on any of this please let me know.

AMN Poll: Reform may worsen healthcare worker shortage

In partnership with The Council on Physician and Nurses Supply, AMN Healthcare released the results of a recently conducted poll of hospital CEOs suggesting that healthcare reform will exacerbate the shortage of healthcare professionals.

"While the short-term economic environment may have temporarily eased the ability to recruit and retain clinical staff, the long-term dynamics of an aging population will drive the need for thousands of additional healthcare professionals," Susan Nowakowski, president of AMN Healthcare, said. "Any plan to expand access to care would intensify an already anticipated critical shortage of clinicians."

Healthcare reform has been a big topic this year. How healthcare reform will affect the healthcare staffing industry remains to be seen. However, most people seem to think it will definitely have a positive impact on the healthcare staffing industry as the demand for healthcare staff increases.