How To Find The Best Healthcare Staffing Firm For Your Facility

As a healthcare facility manager or administrator, providing consistent, quality, around-the-clock patient care is your top priority. That means consistently providing a staff of highly qualified, fully credentialed, compassionate healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, even the best nurses, technicians and direct care workers have to take vacations and call out sick from time to time...

In order to provide the continuous level of care your patients expect and deserve, partnering with a healthcare staffing firm to meet your supplemental staffing needs is essential. But how do you choose the firm that's right for your facility and its patients? We’ve compiled the following tips and suggestions to help facilitate your decision so the next time you need a short-term or long-term temporary staff member, you'll have a "go-to" staffing solution at the ready.

Establish a strong staffing agency relationship.
In order to ensure that their staffing needs are continuously met, many healthcare facility administrators and staffing managers work with multiple staffing agencies on an occasional basis. While this may seem like a good practice on the surface, providing a wide range of contingency options, a closer look reveals that the overall quality and consistency of your patient care may suffer as a result. Consider partnering with a single primary staffing agency capable of fulfilling most (if not all) of your supplemental staffing needs going forward. Of course, it’s always good to have a backup agency in place but, by establishing a strong, consistent working relationship and clear, ongoing communications with a single firm, you are better able to develop the sort of long-term partnership that ensures consistent quality care for every single one of your patients.

Conduct an in-depth review of each agency's website.
While nothing can compare to the sort of on-the-job trial periods that most healthcare staffing firms provide, you can learn a lot about each agency under consideration by reviewing their online content. Take a close look at their company mission statements, staff qualification processes and areas of specialty to get an idea of whether or not they have the fully credentialed personnel and support resources necessary to provide you and your patients with the qualified nurses, technicians or caregivers required.

Ask about each firm's screening and credentialing processes.
Once you’ve conducted a preliminary review of each potential staffing partner’s website, follow up in person or by phone to learn more about how they screen and qualify the healthcare professionals they provide. In addition to asking about any unique credentials or specialty areas that your facility may require, be sure to look for additional quality care verifications such as Joint Commission certification. Ensuring that the staffing firm you choose has the highly qualified and fully credentialed healthcare professionals you require on hand at a moment’s notice is an essential element of any successful partnership.

Search for reviews and testimonials.
Last, but not least, be sure to look for positive third-party validation whenever possible. Don’t just rely on the testimonial section of each agency’s website. Follow up with the administrators and managers quoted there or, better yet, ask your trusted colleagues in the area about their experiences with each healthcare staffing firm under consideration. In addition, a quick Internet search will help you uncover any negative reviews or red flags to aid you in your decision-making process.

For more information about the unparalleled healthcare staffing services QCO offers, click here or call 215-491-5900 to speak with one of our healthcare staffing experts.