Over the past few years, since the turbulence of the pandemic, healthcare organizations' main focus has been having enough staff to fill vacancies due to increased demand and surges in patient volume. This led to unprecedented rates of burnout, permanently changing the course of staffing history as organizations became dependent on contingent labor.
However, recently there has been a bit of a paradigm shift — the emphasis is no longer on finding bodies to fill positions, but rather finding high-quality employees that will stick around for the long haul. But this quest for quality is rarely completed through methods meant to find quick and easy support — AI bot screeners, paper screeners, and the like. Instead, a shift toward a more human-centric clinical screening and interviewing process similar to full-time staff, should occur for contingent staff too. And that's where a Managed Service Program (MSP) that includes clinical interviewing comes in.
Here we'll explore the current state of healthcare staffing, reliance on contingent staff, and more.
The State of Healthcare Staffing
Currently, certain sectors within healthcare are suffering. According to a recent McKinsey publication, "health-system margins are lagging behind their financial performance relative to pre-pandemic levels. Skilled nursing and long-term-care profit pools continue to weaken" as organizations seek innovative solutions to contain costs and maintain integrity of care.
Meanwhile, reliance on contingent staff continues. According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the use of contingent workers has increased by around 63% over the past decade in order to bridge staffing gaps and to meet increased patient demand.
These shortages have led to a concern: Organizations are more willing to relax their standards in order to get the extra hands they need and to keep quality staff from burning out. But as of late, organizations have realized the importance of hiring quality contingent labor. Yet, they still need it to be quick and effective; and HWL has the answer: Clinical experts should conduct screening and interviewing processes.
The Clinical Screening Process
The clinical screening process is one of the most fundamentally important parts of finding high-quality candidates. It's also critical toward ensuring patient safety, regulatory compliance, risk mitigation, organizational efficiency, and building trust with the community.
Unlike agency-led MSP’s, HWL's clinical screening interviewers are independent of agencies which presents an unbiased approach to seeking the best quality candidate for our clients. This process also takes the time burden of candidate processing from unit leaders to allow them to better manage their department and optimize patient care.
There are a number of other immediate & direct benefits to the organization:
- HWL Interviewers are experienced RNs covering all specialities
- On-site unit tours and/or calls to note unit-specific criteria
- Scalable and flexible model based on client needs
- Focused assessment for quality of clinical competence and behavior
- Client expectations are reviewed along with client brand promotion
- Deep dive into professional license to uncover issues thus mitigating organizational risk
- Detailed interview notes for unit manager review
- Reduction in both hire time and delayed starts
The fact of the matter is that many MSPs that boast clinical screening and interviewing do the minimal amount of work possible in order to place candidates quickly. This means relying on AI bots and paper screening rather than putting in the work to talk to candidates. Or if they do have in-person interviews, it's with a recruiter and not an experienced healthcare worker.
Human Interviewers vs. AI Screeners
It may come as no surprise that the vast majority of healthcare HR professionals believe that human interviewers are more effective than AI at identifying soft skills and cultural fit within an organization. And we at HWL have found similar results, at least anecdotally. We can't count the number of times we've had a client express how happy they are that our MSP Services utilize experienced registered nurses that have diverse specialty backgrounds in order to find qualified workers. By the same token, interviewees are ecstatic to actually talk to a nursing professional during their conversations, rather than recruiters.
But do AI screeners have any benefits over human interaction? At face value, yes — speed. However, speed does not equal efficiency in the long run. Yes, one may be able to find a hire on short notice, but it often results in time lost down the road and a poor match that could have been prevented.
It is the essence of the debate between quality vs. quantity. For example, HWL turnaround time averages within one business day for a one-on-one, clinical interview. Meanwhile, AI can screen a candidate in just a few hours. But these candidates are not guaranteed to be quality. In fact, they are oftentimes not quality or cultural fits at all.
For full-time employees, human-led, expert interview processes ensure that candidates are qualified and have staying power. While contingent labor isn't meant to have staying power, these screening techniques still ensure that candidates are qualified and even lend opportunity to show off employer branding if temp-to-hire is possible.
Ultimately, hospitals stand to lose more time and money on quick-fix hiring processes for contingent labor, putting their quality of care at risk.
Nurse-Led Screening
There are a number of ancillary benefits to nurse-led interviewing as well:
- Verbal cues: Assessing verbal cues is part of what interviews are all about. AI or paper screeners aren't able to pick up on the subtleties that can make or break a candidate's qualifications. This is especially true in identifying behaviors such as refusing patient load, refusing to float, disinterest in facility policies, disregard for attendance policy, etc.
- Rapport: Building rapport with candidates is always essential in the hiring process. It not only helps engage with a new generation of workers to understand their wants, needs, and skill sets, but also promotes commitment from travelers who are frequently enticed to cancel pre-start for a higher paying offer elsewhere.
- Experience-driven: Interviewers that have industry experience conduct nuanced interviews, tests, and clinical scenario questions more effectively than any AI or paper screening ever could.
What Data Says About Clinical Screening
HWL utilizes registered nurses in our clinical interview services. Having interviewed and screened 14,929 candidates in 20 months, here are just some of the outcomes:
- 14,929 total candidates interviewed
- 36 minute per candidate screened and interviewed
- 8,958 clinical interview hours conducted
- 58% approved for hire after interview
- Turnaround time <24 hours
- 42% denial rate (3,760 hours) which presents significant redirection of hiring managers' time to focus on patient care &/or strategic initiatives
Saving time, money, and ultimately improving the quality of contingent hires and the satisfaction of both the candidate and our clients is our ultimate goal. With a deep passion to get the best fit for our clients, we handle all screening and interview processes, which in turn saves our clients' teams time and increases their retention rate.
In addition to clinical interviewing, our HWL Clinical Quality Assurance Team conducts performance reviews, facilitates issue reporting, provides follow-up on agency remediation to reduce early terminations, and reviews outcome data reporting. Lessons learned from these Quality Assurance measures are continuously incorporated into the interviewing process to ensure that current best hiring standards are unique to every department.
Clinical Interviewing with HWL Works to Find Quality Candidates
It's no secret that reducing labor spend is among healthcare organizations' top priorities. At the same time, they want dedicated workers that are passionate and loyal for the long term. Contingent labor costs have been skyrocketing since the early days of the pandemic, due to several factors, however the focus for organizations now is quality and not quantity.
HWL provides a suite of healthcare workforce solutions like helping build IRPs, MSPs, VMS, advisory services, and comprehensive, nursing-led, one-on-one clinical interviews. Whatever your staffing woes bring, we can craft a custom-tailored solution that will help you meet organizational imperatives without overspending.
Find a solution or get in touch to learn more.