Strategic Staffing Solutions: Navigating Healthcare Challenges With Agency Expertise

If you are a healthcare organization, you will likely need to work with a staffing agency. To ensure staffing agencies work effectively, you must be confident that they comply with certifications outlined by an accredited organization such as the Joint Commission for Healthcare Staffing Services. Working with an expert agency means the organization verifies clinical qualifications and professional experiences while ensuring its personnel meets clinical standards. All personnel files supplied by quality agencies must include licensing verifications, health documents, background checks, drug screenings, etc.

In addition, staffing agencies must be adaptable and quick to respond to provide services that meet organizational needs. In a crisis, security recommendations, staffing support, contingency planning services, and full-cycle project execution/deployment are critical to project development success. Meeting this criteria means that the staffing agency needs to be flexible and capable of adapting to your changing needs. Therefore, a good staffing agency will excel in problem-solving and have a high level of inventiveness to ensure your patient care is well maintained. You can rely on one agency to provide your services, and here are some of the most commonly requested specialties:

• Nursing Personnel (RN, LPN, CNA, etc.)
• Allied Personnel (RRT, OR Techs, Radiology Techs, etc.)
• Service Personnel (EVS, Dietary, Transporters, etc.)
• Security Staff (Strikeline & Video Documentation, Property Protection, Secured Transportation of Personnel, etc.)

However, licensing restrictions can cause a significant bottleneck in locating qualified professionals to fill temporary positions. These “qualified professionals” fall into specialty position categories and are often difficult to find due to some state-specific licensing limitations. These types of qualified positions include:

• Respiratory Therapists
• Surgical Technicians
• Lab Technicians
• Physical Therapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Radiology Technicians
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Phlebotomists
• Clinical Supervisors
• Social Workers
• Registered Dieticians

What happens if there is a pandemic, natural disaster, or healthcare strike? In addition to qualifications and compliance with standards, the staffing agency must ensure the environment is safe and secure to prevent chaos, hostility, or discord. You want a frictionless environment.

In addition, specific to strikes, a staffing agency that provides security for picket lines and video documentation will help assure that your employees and organization’s products are protected. This assurance requires security personnel who are highly trained for any possible threats that could jeopardize operations. Partnering with an external security provider allows full-time security teams to maintain their mission of keeping core services free from interruption.

Knowledge Is Power

A good staffing agency will fill more than just the positions you need. They will also bring their tried-and-true expertise, a wealth of knowledge born out of years of practice with healthcare organizations nationwide. This knowledge means they can navigate difficulties and pivot their plans if needed. You will want your partner to understand how imperative it is that your organization remains operational and secure no matter what crisis arises.

Most importantly, collaboration is vital. You want to know that the agency will be able to work with you to identify possible stumbling blocks and drawbacks before they happen. You also want to know that the right talent is already on board to handle any threats to your delivery of care that could arise. Therefore, agencies must have a well-rounded and all-encompassing development process and strong, reliable partner networks for timely returns on education and employment verifications and background checks. They should also have an internal team dedicated to license and credential verifications. 

Technology constantly evolves, so the agency you collaborate with must keep pace with the latest innovations. Events such as strikes and other crises require technology to provide speedy and resilient staffing solutions, emphasizing the need for swift engagement and readiness.  

Planning Is Crucial 

Readiness and effective response require a strategic integration into a wide range of operational healthcare processes. This integration means that contingency planning is essential. The purpose of contingency planning is to ensure that healthcare operations are not interrupted when emergencies like a pandemic, natural disasters, or work stoppages arise. A close working relationship with any agency is necessary for the analysis of current procedures, documentation of the physical attributes of the organization, and identification of your most important goals. Pre-crisis, the agency needs to create a detailed plan and run it through rigorous testing to guarantee effectiveness. Staffing agencies must have contingency planning services such as:

• Plan Development: Experienced consultants are needed to assist in developing every aspect of your plan, such as structure, detailed strategies, and tactics, and to provide recommendations based on best practices.
• Plan Facilitation: Staffing agencies must offer professionals who can meet with management teams to answer questions and address specific concerns.
• Gap Analysis: A gap analysis is needed to identify areas that still need to be addressed and suggest alternative tactics that can be more readily executed.

In essence, staffing agencies must offer turnkey operations and hold themselves accountable for delivering agreed-upon services that can handle regulatory and compliance requirements while respecting ethical matters, like equitable staffing ratios.

Conclusion

If your healthcare organization is partnering with a staffing agency, you want one that emphasizes quality and compliance, as Joint Commission Certification outlines. The agency must also offer diverse staffing solutions for nursing, allied, clerical, and service personnel, emphasizing adaptability and readiness. Look for staffing agencies to handle all applicable licensing needs, particularly for allied positions. The agency must also offer a complete menu of security services, helping organizations maintain a level of safety in the event of a crisis. 

It’s not just about filling vacancies. You want an agency that can give you strategic insights and deliver best practices so that your operation remains secure and the care of your patients continues to be optimal. For ultimate efficiency, the agency must be able to identify problems before they happen and offer the most qualified personnel. Finally, for staffing agency collaboration to be successful, there must be a unification of contingency planning and ethical considerations that will give you regulatory compliance by providing turnkey solutions and taking shared responsibility.