Healthcare Staffing in the Time of COVID

Healthcare Staffing in the Time of COVID-19

October 7, 2020 | John Paul Vergara, Head of Talent Acquisition - Find HR

The coronavirus pandemic has upturned life around the world. At the time of this writing, the Philippines surpassed 242,000 cases, and 28 million cases have been confirmed globally. Those numbers will be outdated by the time you read this. Countries are instituting aggressive measures, including closing schools, businesses, restaurants, retail shops, playgrounds and more; enforcing social distancing and sheltering at home policies; slashing travel; and closing borders.

While individuals, families and organizations of all sizes try to navigate our new virtual landscape, healthcare officials and politicians are taking steps to keep the pandemic from overwhelming the system. The Philippines has undergone various stages of quarantine in the past six months and it is expected that the pandemic may be around much longer, and could include multiple waves, putting significant strain on the healthcare system. According to Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, “We have to figure out now how we’re going to get hospitals through, not just today, not this week, not next week, but potentially months of being under siege with these cases.”

Preparing for the Surging Demand for Healthcare Workers

All of this translates into sharply increased demand for healthcare workers, including medical and non-medical personnel. However, given how easily transmittable COVID-19 is, healthcare workers can easily contract the virus. In Italy – ahead of the U.S. in the trajectory of the disease – an overwhelming number of healthcare workers have contracted the virus, taking them out of commission for weeks to a month at a time.

Healthcare staffing organizations will be working hard to meet this spike in clinical placements for at least the next several months – and they could be trying to manage it with decreased availability if many healthcare workers acquire the virus. This will be coupled by a need to quickly ramp up and down according to the “waves”.

Finding a partner that has the expertise to handle healthcare administration for medical personnel will help staffing firms decrease precious turnaround time so medical personnel can onboard as quickly as possible.

Outsourcing the Healthcare Credentialing Process

FIND HR’s recruitment and sourcing support services can help healthcare staffing organizations get medical personnel working as quickly as possible where they’re needed most. We have identified specific activities, metrics, technologies, and roles necessary to drive quality improvements, decrease turnaround time, and improve savings – all while keeping risks low. Our team of dedicated associates working around the clock to ensure we source and deliver only the best people for each job.

Mitigating liability is always one of our primary concerns, so our recruitment coordinators adhere to a specific process that delivers results. Our associates can handle all reference check calls and verifications of employment. Then can run necessary background checks through appropriate channels and put responses in a centralized data repository. If there are any exceptions that fall outside our strict set of rules, FIND HR’s coordinators closely work with our clients’ POC to ensure alignment and compliance every step of the way. Our resources work efficiently and carefully, closely following guidelines provided by the client.

Sourcing and Administrative Support for Healthcare Organizations

For healthcare enterprises that need help sourcing talent for interviews and managing other administrative functions, FINDHR has a growing number of associates to support our clients’ recruiting processes, including:

Posting jobs
Timecard auditing and exception management
Payroll
Collections support
Billing and collections

FIND HR associates are skilled at facilitating a seamless process while delivering cost-effective solutions. Our proactive measures – such as attributing or labeling candidates in the applicant tracking system (ATS) – help healthcare companies search more effectively for medical personnel based on specific skill sets, as well as better allocate those candidates to assigned recruiters.

FIND HR is committed to serving as a source of stability and flexibility in this challenging environment. Whether you’re a healthcare staffing organization or a healthcare company, FIND HR can help you get healthcare workers where they so critically need to be during this tumultuous time.