Healthcare staffing company ShiftMed acquires managed service provider CareerStaff

The country will need an additional 203,200 RNs each year until 2031 to fill staffing shortages

The healthcare worker shortage has been a looming problem for a long time, but the pandemic made it worse. That means, based on projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country will need an additional 203,200 registered nurses (RNs) each year from now through 2031.

ShiftMed is a company looking to solve the nursing shortage by offering flexibility and security to nurses. It provides benefits to both nurses and to health systems and care facilities: on the nursing side, nurses are able to access the platform to pick up any shifts that are convenient for them, while healthcare facilities utilize the technology to increase their access to qualified providers to fill open shifts without using expensive travel nurses or required overtime.

The company will continue to fill its client's needs through the acquisition of CareerStaff Unlimited (CSU), a per diem and contract managed service providers (MSP), from post-acute care provider Genesis HealthCare. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

"Acquiring CSU allows ShiftMed to move to 100% fulfillment of our client’s workforce needs. It also allows us to become the first end-to-end digital MSP, allowing clinicians and providers to use technology to optimize staffing decisions," Todd Walrath, CEO of ShiftMed, told VatorNews.

"This move enables us to effectively address our clients' on-demand needs, streamline operational workflows, and achieve peak staffing efficiency across diverse healthcare environments."

Founded in 1994, the Irving, Texas-based CSU connects healthcare facilities with skilled healthcare professionals, including nurses, therapists, allied health professionals and interim management executives. The company has more than 1,500 agency partners and provides Managed Service Programs to hundreds of healthcare facilities nationally.

With CSU, nurses can choose their own schedule and have the opportunity to get paid weekly with direct deposit through a pay card, even if they don't have a bank account. They also get access to a dedicated recruiter who can answer questions or help them discover new healthcare jobs. The company helps fill candidates for nursing jobs, travel nursing jobs, allied health jobs, and interim leadership jobs.

Through the ShiftMed platform, meanwhile, nurses are able to pick up shifts that fit into their schedules. Nurses on the platform are W-2 workers, which provides them with protections and benefits, such as minimum wage, overtime, and family and medical leave. They’re also entitled to participate in benefits like health and dental insurance, which are often better than what they can afford on their own. 

The company currently has more than 350,000 credentialed nurses using its services. It works with more than 2,000 enterprise healthcare partners ranging from health system acute and outpatient settings to post-acute and in-home providers.

Going forward, CSU will continue to operate, and will continue to service Genesis through an exclusive seven year agreement, in which ShiftMed, in combination with CareerStaff, will provide services to Genesis at over 200 skilled nursing and 1,200 Powerback Rehabilitation locations.

With this acquisition, ShiftMed technology will be additive to the current services provided by CareerStaff: clients will have access to the ShiftMed Mobile App, cloud-based credentialing, ShiftMed On-Demand Float Pool, and ShiftMed Flex Internal Resource Products. The combined companies will have more than 600 employees across the complete family of products servicing healthcare providers.

"With this acquisition, we’re expanding ShiftMed’s product offerings to cover a wider range of staffing solutions. This means that we can provide more options to our customers, from flexible staffing arrangements to complete workforce management solutions," explained Walrath.

"Our goal is to meet the unique staffing needs of each healthcare setting we serve and ensure that our clients have the right tools and resources to meet their specific needs."

This acquisition is also happening at an exciting time in the healthcare staffing industry, he said. one where there's crossroads, and where the space feels overcrowded, as a number of companies trying to help healthcare workers find jobs have raised big rounds of funding in the last few years, including Intelycare, connectRN, Clipboard Health, Wheel, CareRev, Incredible Health, and Nomad Health. As such, this likely won't be the last M&A deal for ShiftMed. 

"I expect this to be one of many acquisitions and mergers we'll see in this area as we all work towards the common goal of streamlining and simplifying workforce staffing to provide better patient care and support our healthcare professionals," Walrath said. 

(Image source: shiftmed.com)