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If you’re looking to hire a medical professional, you want to do it right the first time around. Your facility’s patients expect and deserve the best care possible, so that means that every member of your medical staff must have both the hard and soft skills that this quality care requires.
Whether you need someone temporarily to fill a gap in staffing or you’re looking for a temp to hire to supplement your existing staff, there are certain things you need to do to ensure that this professional has the skills your facility’s patients need.
Before you start the search, you have to know what you’re searching for. Outline your ideal medical professional -- the one with the expert medical skills, the passion for compassion and the best fit with your team and facility’s culture. Write down the job skills, experience, and hard and soft skills that make up this candidate. That perfect medical professional you’ve outlined is out there, and doesn’t just exist on paper!
2. GET THE WORD OUT
Brainstorm the how and where facets of your recruiting strategy. How will you get the word out about your employment opportunity? What locations and forums will you target to increase your chances of finding that perfect candidate?
Put yourself in your perfect candidate’s shoes. Where do they hang out? Where would they look for job listings? Internet cafes, community centers and fitness facilities usually have bulletin boards that get a fair amount of traffic, so take advantage of them. And it’s crucial to post the opportunity online -- on job boards, special interest groups and established network groups. Attend industry employment events, get referrals and even ask friends and family who may know someone for the job.
3. SET UP A SYSTEM
Be organized! You’ll be glad you took a few extra steps to set up a system, especially if an influx of resumes comes in. Use a database to catalog and rank each resume as soon as you read it. This way, you avoid forgetting important details, or even worse, confusing two resumes and following up with the wrong candidate.
4. PICK YOUR INTERVIEW TEAM
Who will be involved in the interviewing process? This is a very time-consuming job, so make sure those who express interest are truly willing to commit. You know your team! Only consider the most patient and dedicated members to help you with recruitment.
Also, brainstorm with this team the types of questions you’ll ask. Make sure to get a sense of each candidate’s personality as well as his or her medical expertise and experience. Will there be any test or project that the candidates have to complete? This is a highly recommended part of the interviewing process because it allows you to observe the candidates’ skills and work ethics in a live setting instead of just on paper.
4.5 EVALUATE TIME & RESOURCES: SHOULD YOU OUTSOURCE?
How much time and resources were needed to keep the search internal? If the cost of recruiting and hiring cut into your medical facility’s profitability or productivity, consider outsourcing to a medical staffing agency. Not only will you save time and resources, but you’ll also tap into the expertise of healthcare recruiters.
Remember, medical staffing is a healthcare recruiter’s job -- and in most cases, it’s best to leave it up to the experts if you want the job done right. Your patients deserve that, and they’ll be appreciative of the expedient, quality care that temporary staffing agencies provide.
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Topics: medical staffing, medical staffing agency, healthcare recruiters
Be Proactive About Your Medical Staffing
Posted on Mon, Jul 23, 2012
To Keep Your Facility Fully Charged, No Matter What
Summer has definitely arrived, which means that many members of your facility’s healthcare staff are likely thinking about vacation time. And they deserve it! A week off to sit in the sand and breathe in some salt air is just what your nurses, direct care workers and other healthcare professionals need to refresh and recharge.
But is your facility prepared for these upcoming vacation months? When it comes to making sure your facility is running with a fully charged lineup of healthcare professionals at all times, you have to think ahead.
And then there are the sick days, which obviously can’t be coordinated or planned. You may not be able to prevent three key staff members from getting sick at the same time, but you can be prepared so it doesn’t turn into an emergency situation. While emergencies happen and on-the-spot staffing solutions are always available, it’s always best to be proactive about your medical staffing plan.
Being proactive means having a plan in place to prepare for both short-term and long-term staffing needs and for both sick days and vacation time. This entails creating monthly staffing calendars that outline and correlate employees’ schedules ahead of time. By taking key holiday periods, projected busy periods and upcoming staff vacations into consideration, you can prepare for the unexpected to the best of your ability.
But you don’t have to do all this proactive planning alone! We’re not ones to brag, but Quality Care Options is made up of professional healthcare recruiters who are industry-leading experts at helping you be proactive about your medical staffing. If you want to learn more, check out QCO’s Staff Ahead™ Proactive Staffing Program! And don’t worry -- we’re completely willing and able to handle those last-minute emergencies too!
So make it a point to set some time aside and map out a staffing plan. Get your staff involved -- they’ll likely have insight and ideas that can help you plan as accurately as possible.
And, as always, if you need help with your medical staffing needs -- from planning and recruiting to performance improvement and competency management -- contact us at QCO. We’re on call for your facility, 24/7. Click the button below for contact information.
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Topics: medical staffing agency, proactive medical staffing, staff ahead™
Choosing The Best Medical Staffing Agency
Posted on Thu, Jul 12, 2012
To Keep Your Facility Running, 24/7
Welcome to the Quality Care Options Blog! This is your all-in-one portal for advice and information on topics related to maintaining your healthcare facility -- from streamlining your procedures and enhancing efficiency, to working with healthcare recruiters and making medical staffing seamless and hassle-free.
We’re going to kick off this blog with an issue that healthcare facility managers and administrators should be quite familiar with: working with temporary staffing agencies. You work in an industry that is expected to provide around-the-clock care. But, as you know, even the best nurses, technicians and direct care workers get sick from time to time. And they of all people deserve some vacation time once in a while, too.
So to provide the continuous level of care that your patients expect and deserve, you must partner with a medical staffing agency. And you likely already knew that. But do know how to choose the firm that's best for your unique facility and its patients?
Not all staffing agencies are the same, and without careful consideration you may choose one that doesn’t work well with your facility.  Here are the things to consider to ensure you have the right medical staffing agency on hand the next time an emergency “temp to hire” situation comes around:
Take the website seriously.
While the on-the-job trial period that most temp employment agencies offer is the best indicator of quality, your first impression should come from the company’s website. This is a good way to weed out the agencies that aren’t up to par before trying them out.
Look at the agency’s mission statements, staff qualification processes and areas of expertise. This will help you determine whether or not the agency has the fully credentialed personnel and support resources necessary to provide your facility’s patients with the most qualified nurses, technicians and caregivers.
After the agency’s website passes your first impression test, set up a phone or in-person meeting to learn more about their screening and credentialing processes. How the agency qualifies the healthcare professionals it provides directly impacts your patients’ care. So this should be, without a doubt, a guiding principle in your selection process.
And while you’re asking in-depth questions or reading materials about the agency’s screening processes, keep eyes and ears open for additional quality care verifications. This includes Joint Commission certification, a thorough and continuous process that includes yearly evaluations and performance reviews. This ensures that the agency is in compliance with the Joint Commission’s premium standards, which are updated regularly to reflect the rapid advances in healthcare and medicine.
Third party opinions are essential if you want the unbiased truth. Follow up with the people quoted on the agency’s testimonial page to get a more thorough -- and possibly more truthful -- analysis. But don’t just rely on the testimonial section of the agency’s website. Ask your trusted colleagues about their own experiences with the healthcare staffing firms that you’re considering.
And don’t forget about the power of the Internet! Search for what’s being said about each medical staffing agency online -- honest opinions and comments from managers and administrators of healthcare facilities like yours. There are plenty of healthcare-related blogs and opinion forums out there that can tell you what goes on beyond the mission statement and “About Us” sections of an agency’s website.
Take “quality over quantity” seriously.
Many healthcare facility administrators and staffing managers make the mistake of spreading their staffing needs across multiple recruiting agencies. On the surface, this seems like a good strategy -- providing more options in emergency situations. But, in reality, the quality and consistency of patient care is going to suffer.
By partnering with a single staffing agency, you establish a strong, dependable working relationship and clear, ongoing communications. And this is what ensures the quality and consistency of patient care -- when the staffing agency is familiar with your facility, it’s able to provide the healthcare professionals that best fit your patients’ needs. Of course, it’s always good to have a backup agency in place, so don’t burn any bridges with the other agencies.
Choosing a medical staffing agency may seem easy, but choosing the most appropriate one for your unique facility takes some time and effort. In the long run, the patients of your facility get the quality and consistency of care that they need and deserve. And that makes the search process more than worth it.