SmartLinx Aims to Ease Health Staffing Shortages

SmartLinx, a company that provides a workforce management tool for healthcare facilities, has launched a new marketplace designed to address the staffing shortage in the health field.

“When the pandemic exacerbated an already growing staffing shortage, we knew we had to act quickly to help organizations close the staffing gap and minimize costs,” Marina Aslanyan, SmartLinx CEO, said in a news release on Wednesday (Dec. 15). “Healthcare organizations have become increasingly dependent on nurse staffing agencies, and we’re proud to launch the industry’s first-to-market staffing platform during such a critical period and time of change. We know this will help transform the market and address the staffing challenges across the industry.”

The New Jersey-based company notes that nursing home and residential care centers have lost close to 13% of their workforce during the pandemic due to staff becoming ill, testing positive for COVID or leaving to look after family. This has left many workers burned out, as assisted living providers turn to temp agencies and limit admissions due to staff shortages.

Read more: US Labor Dept. Says a Record 4.3M Quit Jobs in August

This is part of a larger trend of people quitting their jobs in record numbers, with 4.3 million people leaving their positions in August, mostly due to COVID-related factors. Most of these jobs were in foodservice and accommodations, encompassing 892,000 employees, although the healthcare and social assistance sector saw 534,000 workers quit.

Meanwhile, the pandemic has upped the demand for nursing staff positions by an incredible 255%, a demand that could only increase as cases rise again with the Omicron variant.

SmartLinx says its Staffing Marketplace connects staffing agencies with a healthcare organization’s SmartLinx platform. This lets schedulers fill shifts quicker and eliminates the need to manually track agency nurses for labor management and invoice reconciliation.

The company says the marketplace allows healthcare organizations to fill shifts with a single, easy-to-use scheduling platform. They’ll also avoid the risk of lost revenue due to “double-booking, gaps in care, compliance penalties and inaccurate invoices.”

Healthcare organizations can also enjoy more accurate reporting and eliminate potential human error in invoice reconciliation.