Staffing Robot - Web design and marketing services for companies in the staffing industry

Free Staffing Website Assessments and Other Reasons to Come See Staffing Robot at ASA's Staffing World 2012

Headed to Staffing World this year? Sweet! So are we.

This year the American Staffing Association is hosting the event on Oct. 9 - 11 in Las Vegas in the Venetian hotel. If you've never been it's a great place to stay.

Come visit Staffing Robot in booth number 1207. We'll be doing free website assesments for your staffing company to tell you how to improve and get the most out of your website. We'll also be moderating a session titled “How to Use Your Website to Grow Your Business” on Wednesday, October 10, from 2:15–3:30 p.m. This discussion will be held in the Sales and Business Development room, Lando 4302.

Also, if you stop by our booth we'll give you one of our new Staffing Robot T-shirts. And, if you let us take a photo of you donning this highly fashionable T and post it in our social stream we'll enter you to win an iPad. Yep!

Be sure to take photos while you're at the event and post them with the hashtag #staffingworld to Twitter or Instagram. We'll be streaming all of these photos here: http://letsgetsnappy.com/staffingworld. If you're not attending, this will be a great way to check out all the photos from the event. If you are attending, you can see what other people are doing while there and check back after the event to see all the photos.

Hope to see you soon!

Enter API Healthcare's 'Virtual Daisy' Nurses Week Contest

Check out API Healthcare's Virtual Daisy Contest for Nurses Week. API is asking you to select a daisy and tell your story about why you got into the nursing profession. Prizes for the contest include:

• Subscription To A Nursing Journal Of Your Choice (Up To $100).
• $200 Gift Card For Cherokee Scrubs.
• Free Registration To The API Healthcare Client Forum (July 17 – 19 2012, Milwaukee, WI).

Enter to win here: http://www.apihealthcare.com/daisy/contest/

Staffing World 2011 - Come See Us in New Orleans

Headed to the American Staffing Association's Staffing World conference next week? If so, stop by and see Staffing Robot in booth #324.

This years conference is in New Orleans and takes place from October 11 - 14. From the keynote speakers, to the workshops, to the exhibitors and sponsors it looks to be a great conference. See you there.

Healthcare Staffing Summit 2011 This Week

 

 

This week we will be attending the Healthcare Staffing Summit. We look forward to meeting new and reconnecting with familiar faces. This will be the 10th year members from our team have been to the conference. Every year we learn something new and meet some great people. We expect this year to be no different.

If you're attending the conference, be sure to stop by booth #407. We'll be boothing it this year and showing off samples of our services: staffing website design, mobile web development, search engine optimization, branding, and social media.

We'll also be demoing our email marketing product ePromoter and of course our new product Hively! If you're looking to improve your customer happiness and motivate your internal and external nursing teams there's never been a better way!

If you're looking for highlights of the conference while we're there be sure to follow @staffingrobot and @staffingreport on Twitter! Look for hashtag #hcs11.

Also, if you're attending the API User Group we'll be there giving the keynote titled "How to Increase Engagement & Improve Customer Loyalty: Tips, Trends and Strategies for Marketing Your Healthcare Staffing Company."

And, be sure to read all the reasons you should have attended this years Healthcare Staffing Sumit so you're sure not to miss it next year!

Hope to see you soon!

 

8 Reasons to Attend the 2011 Healthcare Staffing Summit

 

 

If you don't already know, the Healthcare Staffing Summit is fast approaching. Are you going? Still on the fence? Or maybe you've never been? In any case, let us give you 8 reasons to attend this years conference!

First, some summary info.

The Staffing Industry Analysts put on this conference every year. This year, the Healthcare Staffing Summit will be in Philadelphia, PA from Wednesday, September 21 - Friday, September 23rd at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott.

The SIA describes the conference as:

The annual Healthcare Staffing Summit brings CEOs, owners, and senior level executives together to focus on topics of both strategic and tactical interest to the full range staffing segments for the healthcare industry ranging from travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, allied medical, to IT, finance and operations.

This is a conference we've attend for over a decade and it's never disappointed! 

1. Networking. The conference gathers industry leaders that cover the spectrum of staffing services in the healthcare industry. You'll meet new people, get great ideas and network with some of great people in the industry.

2. Data, data, data! Everyone is always looking for the latest information, stats and data on the healthcare staffing industry. This is the place to get it! If you only go to one talk, Barry Asin's Keynote on the status of the industry will give you everything you're looking for in terms of industry data. This year his talk is titled 'Capturing Opportunities in a Changing Industry.'

3. Meet prominent people from outside the industry. Learn more about topics that effect the industry like healthcare reform. This year, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader - William H. Frist will be speaking on healthcare reform.

4. It's in Philadelphia! If you've never been, Philladelphia is an amazing place full of history and great things to do. From the Liberty Bell, to baseball games to cheese steak! Don't miss out!

5. Great talks! From tips on sales and marketing, to gathering data, to learning more about the hot trends in the market, this year's Healthcare Staffing Summit has a great agenda.

6. Technology and services vendors. The Healthcare Staffing Summit always brings together a great list of exhibitors offering beneficial services to your healthcare staffing company. Check out the list of attendees and sponsors here.

7. Pre-conference networking! This year the Healthcare Staffing Summit has a pre-conference networking website. You can create a profile, connect with other attendees, learn more about exhibiting companies, create your schedule and set up meetings with others. It's a great way to connect before the conference even starts! 

8. Staffing Robot will be there! We will be in booth #407 so stop by and see us. Come by and learn more about our marketing services to healthcare staffing companies. We'll be available to discuss website design, mobile website development, social media marketing, email marketing and of course our new product Hively! We will also be speaking at the API Customer Meeting on Top Marketing Trends for Healthcare Staffing Companies. 

If you've never been to the Healthcare Staffing Summit this is a great year to start! If you've been in the past you won't want to miss this years conference. We hope to see you out in Philly!

 

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!

 

The Healthcare Staffing Summit 2010 is Next Week!

Next week is the 2010 Healthcare Staffing Summit. It is THE event to attend if you're in the healthcare staffing industry. If you've never attended, you're missing out and should consider attending this year or in the future. This is the only conference specific to healthcare staffing where you can:

• network with colleagues
• check in with your competitors
• learn about new technologies and services for your healthcare staffing business
• get incredibly valuable data on what's been happening in the healthcare staffing industry
• find out predictions on where the industry is going

This year's location:

Healthcare Staffing Summit

September 20-22, 2010, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago IL

In speaking with representatives from the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), this years attendance is higher than last years and they expect a really good conference. If you don't know about the conference, here is a summary of the event taken from the SIA site:

The annual Healthcare Staffing Summit brings CEOs, owners, and senior level executives together to focus on topics of both strategic and tactical interest to the full range of healthcare staffing segments -- travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, and allied medical. It is typically comprised of over 55% CEOs/owners and 90% VPs and above. Attendees listen to and interact with healthcare staffing industry leaders and analysts, gather best practices and proprietary information, and enjoy extensive peer networking.

I am honored to have been asked to be on a panel discussion this year representing Staffing Robot and discussing Social Media Marketing for healthcare staffing agencies. The session is titled "Social Media: No Longer A Hobby" and will take place on Tuesday, September 21st from 1:15 - 2:15 PM (CST). Hinda Chalew, Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Interactive Services for the Staffing Industry Analysts will be moderating the panel. The panel will also include Marc Bowles, Chief Marketing Officer from The Delta Companies and Jim Lanzalotto from Scanlon.Lewis. It's sure to be an interesting discussion so please stop by if you're at the conference.

Here is a link(.PDF) to the program for healthcare staffing the conference.

Hope to see you there!

 

The Healthcare Staffing Report

Today I'm launching The Healthcare Staffing Report. The Healthcare Staffing Report is a site of aggregated news links, curated from hundreds of industry sources. From my perspective, finding relevant news for the healthcare staffing industry is difficult because the sources are fragmented and in most cases delivered through outdated, subscription models.

The purpose of this site is to deliver useful news content to participants in the healthcare staffing industry – free of charge. If you’re a staffing agency, hospital, healthcare professional, industry association, or a technology/service provider within the healthcare staffing industry, you now have a single source of relevant news links that will benefit you in your career.

The best part? The links on this site aren’t just static feeds from around the web. These links are curated top stories from hundreds of sources such as blogs, associations, news outlets, etc.

Currently, the news links on the site are updated daily and fall into the categories of:

• Today's Headline
• Top Industry News
• Staffing Agencies
• Hospitals & Health Systems
• Healthcare Professionals
• Government & Economy
• Sales & Marketing
• Social Media
• Vendor Management
• Technology
• Healthcare IT
• Just for Fun

The Healthcare Staffing Report also provides several opportunities for you to promote your company in the form of ads and sponsored links that are ‘followed’ to increase your SEO. (The news story links are not followed.)

The sites promotion opportunities include:

• Top Page Leaderboard Ads
• Mid-Page Square Ads
• Sponsored Links to promote your website, press release or other relevant news
• Upcoming Events to promote your webinar, trade show, user group, etc.

If you have questions or an industry relevant link, story or news source you would like to see on this site you can contact me and submit the information to the Healthcare Staffing Report directly.

Click here to learn more about or purchase ads on The Healthcare Staffing Report.

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!