Technical Capability
Offeror’s Comprehensive Understanding of this Requirement
Having worked in similar environments in Nevada, California and North Carolina, as well as other intense high pressure facilities (e.g., forensic mental health, correctional mental health), Spectrum understands the minutiae and processes that 100% nursing coverage requires. From full time blocks to per diem pools to travel assignments, Spectrum has successfully utilized all temporary nurse registry tools available to ensure maximum fill rates for its high priority facilities. Relevant to this contract, Spectrum recently guided and managed the nurse staffing requirements for Clark County’s Department of Juvenile Services and North Carolina’s statewide psychiatric nurse staffing support over the last year. Additionally, Spectrum singlehandedly staffed the most difficult mental health state facility (Rawson-Neal) in Nevada in order to help them recover their certification previously lost due to insufficient nurse staffing. Thus, Spectrum’s workflow and management was built to meeting the urgency expected of the anticipated requirements.
Offeror’s Mastery of the Subject Matter
Together, Spectrum’s registry team has been managing nurse staffing pools at all levels (state, private and federal) for over ten years. Our project manager, Brian Kaiserman has more than 10 years in healthcare recruiting and placements, including his recent role as Director of Staffing and Recruiting for Spectrum’s east coast customers. Mr. Kaiserman matches customer needs with recruiting strategy and resources. Previously, Mr. Kaiserman was the lead staffing and credentialing coordinator on two state/local level government projects where the objective was to build and develop a qualified pool of per-diem, as-needed providers for state mental health facilities. If awarded this contact, Mr. Kaiserman will be the Project Director responsible for overseeing the successful fulfillment of all facility needs.
Offeror’s Explanation and Methodology
Qualified Staff Placements: The Compliance Manager and Compliance Quality Assurance Group are tasked with ongoing licensure status monitoring. We will utilize proprietary staffing software to set alarms and expiration updates as necessary to ensure early alerts (60 days prior) of any pending licensure expirations. We will prepare a weekly report of any such pending expirations and will create a status sheet tracking the personnel’s response to expiration notices. If the Compliance Team has exhausted all reasonable efforts to renew licensure, the personnel will be removed from the system prior to expiration; equally important, a replacement will be found and begin working within 10 days of license expiration.
100% Fulfillment and Maintenance: The below processes guarantee that all open positions are filled and priority needs are translated across all divisions of this project. For High Priority Positions, Spectrum will ensure that there are multiple credentialed staff alternatives to submit in the most expedient manner possible. These alternatives may come from local locum tenens subcontractors or our on-call registry personnel. The objective of the below recruitment plan is to establish a pool of available providers for both long term needs and unexpected network gaps.
Maintaining Policy & Procedures, and Professional Standards: Spectrum has multiple existing contracts for nurse registry services throughout the U.S. This experience has taught us the importance of adhering to the highest industry standards of professionalism. Because the overwhelming majority of Spectrum’s customers are government agencies with strict policies and procedures, we have deep familiarity with the importance of staying up to date on industry best practices. Spectrum’s regular communication with the customer ensures that any violations or personnel issues will be quickly identified and addressed. All incidents will result in corrective action subject to customer approval. Upon completion of said corrective actions, the customer will receive documentation confirming same. The Project Manager and Compliance Manager are responsible for organizing the necessary on-boarding and internal processes for strict adherence to facility directed policies and procedures. They are the point of contact for all matters pertaining to customer policies and procedures. The Compliance Manager further establishes internal work flows with the help of the Project Manager to ensure that administrative tasks (time sheets, billing, scheduling, etc.) adhere to the required policies and procedures.
Workflow Organized Exceed Performance Requirements.
For this contract, the following functional workgroups are organized around responsiveness and effectiveness:
1. Project Manager. The Project Manager regularly communicates with the customer to identify all gaps and performance issues, and is ultimately responsible for delivering the focus and priorities among the functional groups listed below. Because the Project Manager is managing the information flow between all functional groups, this manager will also produce all the required “manpower” reports and narratives in a timely manner.
2. Facility Representative. The Facility Representative reports to the Project Manager, and is responsible for receiving the individual needs and expectations of the customer facility in this contract. With intimate knowledge of the needs and gaps of all facilities, the Facility Representative will work closely with the Project Manager to monitor performance measures. Tasked with advocating for facility needs, the Representative works closely with our Registry Staffing Group, described in greater detail below.
3. Registry Staffing Group. This team is a fully integrated recruiting, placement and credentialing team responsible for direct placement of temporary health providers. The group consists of a Registry Recruiting Manager assisted by supporting team members in sourcing, credentialing and provider support. The Recruiting Manager works closely with the Facility Representative and Project Manager to ensure that all gaps will be filled quickly. The Recruiting Manager develops long term recruiting strategies with the Facility Representative to ensure all future gaps will be met.
4. Compliance & Quality Assurance Group. This group manages the credentialing and ongoing compliance of applicants and personnel working at MAMC, from open positions to candidate qualifications to license expiration. The Compliance Quality Assurance Group’s Compliance Manager works with the Facility Representative to ensure that all staff and applicants positions are fully licensed and credentialed to ensure continuous service throughout the term of this contract.
5. Information Technology Team. Spectrum’s in-house IT group can develop and implement utilization forecasting and data analytics as needed to exceed contract requirements. We are one of few staffing agencies with proprietary and patented data analytics technology developed in-house for staffing healthcare. With this team we can monitor and plan for expedient staff fulfillment throughout the course of the contract term.
Recruitment Plan
Recruitment Plan to Exceed Requirements. Spectrum’s approach was developed from the ground up to focus on quickly staffing and filling the required facility needs. Complete fulfillment starts with responsiveness and information collection. As described below, our entire workflow is built to minimize delay: from weekly attack strategies to redundancy tactics to long term marketing roadmap. Moreover, the budget as proposed encompasses all the necessary costs of marketing, outreach and credentialing, which guarantee the most qualified candidates in the shortest time.
1. Near Term Needs. The regularly updated Staffing Commitment Schedule guides the daily tasks of the in-house Registry Staffing Team for immediate fulfillment needs (4 weeks or less). Spectrum comprehensively manages the candidate recruiting pipeline to ensure that they are on track to deliver on staffing needs and on-call coverage within designated deliverables. We will prepare internal forecasts as to what minimum staffing levels can be maintained and will plan recruiting accordingly for unscheduled absences through on-call schedules and per diem pool. Furthermore, the Registry Manager can leverage additional marketing resources such local nursing events and social networking tools (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) to supplement this pipeline.
2. Long Term Staffing Strategy. Additionally, the Project Manager analyzes the cyclical and seasonal needs to forecast future absences and turnover in critical positions. As part of the weekly Commitment Schedule, the Project Manager will have incorporated into their registry personnel strategy in order to maintain the minimum staffing requirements for each facility throughout the year. For example, after the first full year working with this contract, the Facility Representative will have a deep understanding of cyclical absences and facility needs to be able to better forecast seasonal changes to personnel availability as a result of holidays and vacations.
3. High Priority Positions. There will always be positions and shifts that are most difficult to fill due to high qualification requirements or unattractive scheduling and therefore pose high turnover rates over the long term. Because of the predictable turnover of these positions, all personnel registry efforts will prioritize these positions as “High Priority Positions”.
Overall Management Concept. Each of the functional workgroups listed is autonomous and empowered to act in the best interest of its objective in order to hold the other workgroups accountable. This flat management strategy ensures that the most urgent tasks are immediately addressed with status updates readily available. Spectrum’s management concept is built upon expedient execution by breaking up its functional workgroup into task focused advocates as follows:
Project Manager collects all status updates from all groups to ensure timely delivery of all deadlines and reports. The Project Manager is accountable for deadlines and deliverables promised to the Madigan Army Medical Center. Additionally, the Project Manager can forecast future needs and gaps to prepare accordingly. In this contract the duties of the Project Manager and Facility Manager may be undertaken by one individual.
Facility Representative communicates directly with all facilities to make sure all needs have been received and all urgent needs have an acceptable deadline. Facility Reps are their advocates and ensure that each facility is heard, from personnel issues to uncovered shift requests to facility level troubleshooting. In this contract the duties of the Project Manager and Facility Manager may be undertaken by one individual.
Registry Staffing Manager is the safety net for unexpected emergencies and network gaps. All open positions not met by the MBEs must be addressed by the in-house Registry Staffing manager, who will provide detailed timelines and strategies to fill even the most difficult positions.
Compliance Manager ensures that all policies and procedures are systematically monitored and followed. From licensure and credentialing to onboarding and orientation, the Compliance Manager allows the other groups to focus on contract fulfillment while she handles all administrative obligations on this contract.
Human Resources & Accounting Team tracks and accounts for all LPN hours worked and billed. They additionally track all contract administration hours related to this contract for annual reports related to manpower expended in this contract. They collect all provider time sheets directly from all staff to be processed into the monthly billing statements. They process and remit the entire payroll stack for all providers from corrections and reconciliation to overtime calculation and employee withholding. Additionally, this group manages the policies and procedures related to overtime, professional insurance, worker compensation insurance, claims resolution, statutory benefits and classifications, discrimination, and harassment. Personnel include at least four support staff.
IT Manager maintains and develops the necessary computing infrastructure to track data points and monitor outcomes to create the assist the managers in monitoring their team’s progress and overall performance.
Overall Management Concept
In order to meet urgent nurse coverage demands in the shortest time possible, the Facility Representative is empowered to prioritize resources from our internal Registry Staffing Group to fill unscheduled absences as necessary. Moreover, having a single point of contact allows for full understanding of the timelines and capabilities for an accurate fulfillment schedule. In the event there is a gap in the provider pool, the Project Manager will be notified to immediately step in to keep the Madigan Army Medical Center apprised of any unexpected delays in filling these urgent positions.