Housing Market Affects Nurses Living in Florida

An article from today’s Miami Herald described an interesting phenomenon going on in the world of nursing. In an effort to combat the nursing shortage, nurses living and working in southern Florida are quietly being recruited to the north with promises of cheaper housing and better hiring incentives.

Recruiters from Moses Cone Health System, located in Greensboro, North Carolina, met with a number of nurses this week in a Westin hotel in Fort Lauderdale yesterday.  Next week the recruiters will be at the Marriott Miami Dadeland, and an Orlando location is scheduled for Thursday.

Q: What do you think about this kind of recruiting method?

Click here to read the entire article: NC hospitals quietly tempt South Florida’s nurses.

PRN Funding to Speak at NNBA Meeting

Next weekend, PRN Funding will be in Daytona Beach exhibiting and sponsoring breakfast at the National Nurses in Business Association’s 19th Annual Conference .

In addition to exhibiting, PRN Funding will conduct a table-top presentation for nurse entrepreneurs entitled: How to Locate Money Sources for Your Business.

Click here to read the press release: PRN Funding Joins Nurses in Business for Annual Meeting.

Small Businesses Turn to Alternative Funding, AR Factoring

Arden Dale wrote an article in this week’s Wall Street Journal reviewing three alternative credit sources for small businesses who are being turned down for traditional bank loans.  Specifically, the article discussed accounts receivable factoring, borrowing from friends and family, and peer-to-peer lending.

Executive Director of the International Factoring Association (IFA), Bert Goldberg, advised business owners to only consider factoring companies who follow industry best practices.  He recommended choosing an invoice funding firm who is a member of the IFA because “all members have agreed to adhere to a strict code of ethics.” 

Note to our readers: For those healthcare vendors looking for an specialized factoring firm, PRN Funding, LLC is a proud member of the IFA.

Travel Nurse Staffing Client Becomes JCAHO Certified

One of our travel nurse staffing factoring clients had some exciting news to share with us last week.  They wrote to tell us that their company achieved the Gold Seal of Approval for healthcare staffing services from the Joint Commission for Accreditation and Certification Operations (JCAHO).

The temporary nurse staffing company underwent an audit of its complete operations including amongst other things, compliance with national standards, qualification and competency of staff (office and nurses), how nurses are placed and how nurse and staff’s performance is monitored.

The nurse staffing factoring client also mentioned that at the present time, only about 5% of all healthcare staffing firms have achieved the standard. The JCAHO certification program offers an independent, comprehensive evaluation of a staffing firm’s abilities to provide competent and safe staffing services.

It is hoped that this certification will provide the travel nurse staffing factoring client with increased access to new customers.

AAPC Accepting Nominations for NAB Members

Last Friday, the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) started accepting nominations for the 2009-2011 National Advisory Board (NAB).

According to the AAPC Web site, “The NAB works with the national office for the betterment of the entire membership and the medical coding community through active participation in nationally sponsored conferences, events, publications, educational programs and activities.”

The new term begins on April 8, 2009 and is comprised of 16 members appointed by the AAPC.

Click here to submit your NAB nomination.

Medical Transcription Factoring Success Story

The medical transcription factoring specialists at PRN Funding wanted to share one of our most recent client success stories with our readers.  Afterall, it’s one thing to read about our specialized factoring services, it’s quite another to hear a real-life client success story.

Patrick is one of our most recent client highlights because thanks to medical transcription factoring, he was able to utilize PRN Funding’s invoice factoring services to help grow his business.  Today, his company is one of Inc’s 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

Please visit PRN Funding’s web site here to read the entire medical transcription factoring success story.

Unique Staffing Niche – Bilingual Nurses

PRN Funding has written a number of blogs/articles touting Dr. Linda Aiken’s studies on how supplemental staffing agencies can help solve the overall nurse shortage problem.  However, we recently read about a very specific niche in temporary nurse staffing–staffing nurses who are bilingual, especially in Spanish.

In the state of Delaware, where the spanish-speaking population has doubled in the past seven years, bilingual nurses are in high demand.  According to an article on DelawareOnline.com, there is a very real fear that “that with few Spanish-speaking health care workers, those who speak Spanish only, or little English, will be less likely to seek medical treatment.”

Proponents of training and hiring bilingual nurses think that having these specific nurses on staff at key medical facilities will help the immigrants improve their overall health as well as understand the American health care system better.

If you ask the temporary nurse staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding, staffing bilingual nurses sounds like a unique opportunity that agency owners should think about exploring.

Click here to read the entire article: State needs nurses who speak Spanish.

Getting to Decision Makers

The Haley Marketing Group had a very interesting write-up in last week’s Net-Temps Recruiters e-newsletter, in which they shared different tactics for salespeople to get their foot in the door when it comes to getting their marketing message in front  of the right person.

We decided to include the recap of the article for our Factoring Blog readers below:

  1. Do your homework first
    • identify the right decision makers
    • discover their MBA (ideally, before making any approach)
    • know the value you can deliver (quantifiable if possible)
  2. Plan to get in the door
    • grab the decision maker’s attention – find a creative way to get the door open
    • network
    • partner
  3. Keep the door open
    • educate – teach decision makers how you can help
    • add value – position yourself as an expert not a sales person
    • build credibility – prove the value of the solution you can provide
    • nurture relationships – stay top-of-mind between calls, until a decision is made

Click here to read the entire article: Getting to Decision Makers.

Healthcare Staffing Firm Buying Up Hospitals

Jackson Hospital Affiliates is the new brainchild of Jackson Healthcare, a healthcare staffing agency based in Alpharetta, GA.  The Jackson Hospital Affiliates division of the company was opened as a new initiative for aquiring and operating hospitals, according to Staffing Industry Analyst’s Daily News.

“We feel we have the resources and management expertise ‘to make a difference’ in the quality and delivery of healthcare in the communities served by our hospitals,” said Richard Jackson, chairman and CEO of Jackson Healthcare.

Temp Nurses are More Qualified

Professor Linda Aiken is back with a new study debunking the myth that temporary nurses are underqualified compared to their full-time hospital counterparts.  She delivered the results of her study last month at the Staffing Industry Analysts Inc.’s Healthcare Staffing Summit, held in San Francisco.

As reported by the Staffing Industry Analyst’s e-newsletter, “according to Aiken, 75% of hospitals participating in a study said they use supplemental nurses. Still doubts over the quality of these nurses persist. Aiken’s study shows that on average supplemental nurses are more qualified and the majority of them work in primary jobs in hospitals. They are also more likely to be specialty certified.

Despite the negative attitude, continued shortage of nurses and physicians bodes well for the healthcare staffing industry. The shortage of registered nurses in the U.S. is estimated to reach 800,000 by 2020. The physician shortage is estimated at 250,000 by 2025. Moreover, Aiken added that 30% of nurses say they are burned out and are dissatisfied with their jobs. They seek employment with staffing firms to control their schedules and to earn better wages and get supplemental income.”