HARTFORD, Wis. — December 22, 2009 —

“The synergy created by adding Clearview’s products to the API Healthcare suite supports our vision of providing an integrated, healthcare-focused solution that addresses the challenges around optimizing workforce utilization,” said J.P. Fingado, president and chief executive officer of API Healthcare. “Hospitals and agencies recognize that there is a great deal of inefficiency and tension inherent in their current relationships. Our combined solutions and technology give us the unique ability to address these issues by maximizing operational efficiencies and streamlining workflows, thereby improving hospital-agency relationships.”

API Healthcare is delivering on its vision to optimize human capital by building a complete suite of solutions focused on making it easier to place healthcare workers in the right place at the right time. Healthcare organizations are able to achieve positive outcomes by managing labor costs while still focusing on patient care.  As Clearview’s applications are integrated with API Healthcare’s applications, both hospital users and staffing agencies will be able to realize additional cost savings and productivity gains.

“By becoming a part of API Healthcare, we are able to join a successful, larger company and have a greater impact on the management of the healthcare workforce,” said David Gorman, president and co-founder of Clearview Staffing Software. “The integration of the API Healthcare and Clearview solutions will enable hospitals and health systems to maximize both internal and external staffing resources. The solutions will also make it easier for agencies and hospitals to work together, resulting in a win/win situation.”

Clearview, based in Dallas, Texas, provides SaaS-based healthcare staffing solutions that allow healthcare staffing agencies to automate the process of recruiting, onboarding, licensing, credentialing, scheduling, managing and paying temporary medical professionals.

API Healthcare headquarters will remain in Hartford, WI and the Dallas office will be a key business center for the corporation.

Learn more about the acquisition.

About API Healthcare

API Healthcare is the leading provider of human capital management solutions to the healthcare industry, including time and attendance, staffing and scheduling, patient classification, payroll, human resource, recruiting and onboarding, business analytics and agency staffing solutions. Founded in 1982, API Healthcare has more than 1,000 installations in North America and Europe. API Healthcare’s Payrollmation® system has been rated by KLAS in the Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards Report (www.KLASresearch.com) as the top time and attendance system for the last eight years (2002-2009). The company’s Web site address is www.apihealthcare.com.

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Press Contacts:
Samantha Ehley
(262) 670-2714
samantha.ehley@apihealthcare.com

Kathleen Bowley
Dodge Communications
(770) 576-2558
kbowley@dodgecommunications.com

John Pencsak (JP) and I have dedicated the last 10 years of our lives to building Clearview. We have seen tremendous year-over-year growth as we’ve expanded our product offerings. Over the last couple of years, we’ve been exploring ways to take the company to the next level.  Entertaining a buyer who could provide a greater financial investment and bring complementary solutions to the client base seemed like the next logical step.  After much due diligence, JP and I have determined that API Healthcare is the right fit.  Like Clearview, API Healthcare is focused solely in the healthcare industry and shares our passion for creating dynamic, creative solutions. This acquisition is a smart move that will allow us to be part of a much larger company that is very financially sound and experiencing significant growth. That will ultimately benefit our clients.

The API Healthcare and Clearview solutions are perfect complements to one another. API Healthcare is dedicated to optimizing human capital for hospitals and healthcare delivery organizations; Clearview provides staffing agencies with the tools they need to recruit, credential, schedule and pay high quality temporary medical professionals. However, many of the workflows between agencies and hospitals are manual, inefficient and error prone because there is not a solution that completely automates those processes, until now. The integration of the Clearview and API Healthcare solutions bridges that automation gap. We have an amazing opportunity to redesign the agency/hospital relationship.

This process re-engineering serves the needs of agencies, hospitals, and healthcare workers – it’s a win/win/win situation. We’re looking forward to changing the way agencies and hospitals work together, and we can’t wait for you to learn more.

Health Leaders Media is reporting that hospitals are not only recovering but showing signs a ‘V’ shaped recovery (one that both declines and recovers quickly).

“There has been an improvement at the hospital level that has allowed them [hospitals] to ease up on the cost containments,” he says. “To the extent that they can, hospitals do not want to get caught not operating at appropriate levels in terms of staffing because that is going to hurt them in the long run. Job growth may not come back to historical levels, but over the next 12 months it will definitely be up from what we have seen through much of this year.”

Of course, the only thing to be leery of when predicting ‘V’ shaped recoveries is that the prediction is too early and in fact, what we’re seeing is a ‘W’ (an economy that declines, recovers and declines again). There are several predictions being thrown around in regard to the healthcare staffing industry and the 2010 economic outlook.

Hopefully this won’t be the case. Reading about specific regions, such as Texas, also seeing signs of hospital recovery is also good news.

The percentage of hospital revenue left over after regular business expenses increased from zero in the third quarter of 2008 to 4 percent in the second quarter this year. In Texas, the proportion increased from 6 percent to 8 percent.

via www.dallasnews.com

Only time will tell. But let’s hope for the best.

This article is brought to you by Staffing Robot, a premier source of intelligence for the healthcare staffing industry.

Yesterday, the SIA released another report suggesting that by 2011, 93% of healthcare buyers in the U.S. will be using a VMS or MSP. The numbers come from a survey they did of 171 healthcare buyers. The survey results also suggested that the breakdown of these accepted offerings will be:

• 55% MSP
• 42% VMS

According to my estimates of hospitals using a VMS or MSP model, the 50% current adoption is probably pretty close to accurate. This adoption of VMS by hospitals is up 24% from last year according to the SIA. The SIA is partially basing their prediction of a jump to 93% in 2011 based on a similar growth pattern from the previous two years. However, I don’t think this jump is accurate because I think there previous year (2008) estimate of 24% was much too low.

Further, in terms of the number of hospitals, the vendor neutral VMS technology model has been much more widely accepted than agency MSP offerings. Therefore, I don’t see how in two years the MSP model will overtake the VMS model by 13%.

So, place your bets on who’s crystal ball is clearer. We’ll see what 2011 brings.

This article is brought to you by Staffing Robot, a premier source of intelligence for the healthcare staffing industry.

The following new tests have been released.

Clinical Support Tech:
Certified Medication Aide
EMT
Orthopedic Tech
Paramedic

Laboratory:
Cytologist

Nursing Cores:
Emergency Room Medication
Psychiatric Medication
Respiratory Therapy for Nurses (includes reading material)
Ventilator for Nurses (includes reading material)

Pharmacy:
Pharmacy Tech – Retail

The following new skills checklists have been released.

Clinical Support Tech:
Certified Medication Aid
Emergency Room Tech (new version)
Orthopedic Tech
Paramedic

Laboratory
Cytologist

Pharmacy:
Pharmacy Tech – Retail

Note: To use a new Skills Checklist, set the display to Yes from the Skills tab of RSS.

The following tests have been updated.

Clinical Support Tech:
Cardiac Cath Lab Tech
Certified Medical Assistant
Emergency Room Tech

Cores:
Pain Management (updated reading material and Competency Test)

Imaging and Diagnostics:
Cardio-Vascular Intervention

Nursing Cores:
Vascular Access Device Management (updated reading material and Competency Test)

Nursing Specialty:
Cardiac Cath Lab

Pharmacy:
Pharmacy Tech – Hospital (name change)

Note: As always, for any updated Competency Tests currently assigned, the Candidate will automatically receive the new version of the test when they log in to RSS.

The following skills checklists have been updated.

Clinical Support Tech:
Emergency Room Tech is now EMT

Pharmacy:
Pharmacy Tech is now Pharmacy Tech – Hospital

For a complete list of Nationally Validated Skills Checklists and Competency Tests please visit www.clearviewrss.com

Also, permanent staff nurses are working many more shifts, which means there are fewer opportunities for temporary staff.

Overall, the volume of job orders within each facility has decreased and that means hospitals are also having the luxury of being more selective and holding out for more quality candidates. There’s a great pool of very experienced, very capable healthcare travelers out in the industry, and the hospitals are getting the really good players.

The recently announced economic stimulus package and proposed federal budget includes significant healthcare-related spending that will likely drive increased need for physicians and nurses, although the timing and the magnitude of that impact are certainly very difficult to predict. A large portion of the spending is focused on increasing access to healthcare services. Also, there is long-term funding toward health information technology. These drivers may increase demand for temporary physicians and nurses as hospitals implement new systems.

There’s going to be a huge shakeout in the industry. Weaker, less financially sound companies are going to go out of business, and the stronger, better run, better capitalized companies are going to survive. Some companies just don’t have the financial wherewithal to make it through a prolonged downturn. If a company doesn’t have strong cash flow or cash reserves, it’s very difficult to sustain the payroll and the operating costs associated with having a healthcare travel agency.

Predictions have the overall healthcare staffing market contracting by 5% or 10%, but this will probably be a short-term blip. Healthcare staffing is a great segment to be in because of the long-term demographics. Additionally, facilities are not only looking for quality healthcare provider candidates, they’re also looking for quality agencies. They may choose to work only with Joint Commission-certified agencies.

This article was pulled from The Healthcare Traveler.

http://healthcaretraveler.modernmedicine.com

Being in D.C. for the 2009 Healthcare Staffing Summit, you couldn’t help finding yourself in discussions about healthcare reform and its impact on the healthcare staffing industry. The highlight of the Healthcare Staffing Summit was listening to former Senator, Tom Daschle speak on the topic. Whether you agree with him politically or not, you can’t argue with his knowledge and command over the topic of healthcare, as well as his speaking ability. It was an amazing opportunity to hear him.

Here are some highlights of his speech from my notes:

• Reforming healthcare is a transformative event, equivalent to similar events that happened after WW2, the civil rights movement and 9/11.
• 50 million people are uninsured at part or all of the year and 48% of those insured are not adequately insured.
• The U.S. is the only industrialized country that has a problem with healthcare coverage for its citizens.
• Healthcare costs everyone in the U.S. about $8K per person. This is 40% higher than the next highest country – Switzerland.  22% of these costs go to administration.
• Starbucks spends more on healthcare than they do coffee.
• Ford spends more on healthcare than they do steel.
• Medical costs are the #1 reason for personal bankruptcy (over 50%) in this country.
• The U.S. starts its spending on healthcare at the most expensive part of the cost pyramid (the top) and works its way down, running out of money before everyone can be covered. Other societies work in reverse, in order to cover more people adequately at a more cost effective rate.
• Senator Daschle calls the debate about healthcare reform “the noise of democracy” which he states is “far better than the noise of violence.”
• Healthcare reform will create a tremendous demand for healthcare professionals, thereby having a positive effect on the healthcare staffing industry.
• Today we have 21^st century operating rooms with 19^th century administration.
• Primary areas of the healthcare reform bill without consensus – public option; financing mechanism of $1 Trillion; to what extent cuts should be part of funding, mandates; role of the employers; medical malpractice; insurance companies selling across state lines; federal health board.

The topics for the show covered the spectrum including: healthcare staffing industry data, the economy, selling in the current economy, working with the government, selling IT staffing to hospitals, healthcare vendor management, Locum Tenens and several others. Personally, I always feel that the events and topics on the first day are much better than those on the second day. The second day typically consists of employees from staffing companies sitting on panels and discussing a particular topic related to the industry. However, I always find a lot of these discussions to be stating the obvious and don’t feel there is anything of major value ever being revealed. Fortunately, the sessions from the first day always make the whole event worth it.

I was most happy with and surprised by the discussions on healthcare reform and how it could affect the healthcare staffing industry. Having Tom Daschle there to present this topic was by far the highlight of the event for me.

In addition, the economic news and industry data was of course really depressing but also a sharp dose of reality. And, as always, it was interesting to hear VMS being referred to as a “threat to the industry” by the SIA, even though VMS has now been adopted by 48% of hospitals in the market.

Next week I’ll have several posts containing notes from a few of the sessions I attended. If you weren’t able to attend, hopefully these summaries will provide you with some good information.

The only major complaint I have with the Healthcare Staffing Summit is the cost. As a vendor, it costs us 3-5x as much to set up a booth as it does to attend any other industry conference we go to. (I won’t even mention the fact that I don’t agree with VMS companies being listed as vendors and not participants) Although it is a really great conference, I’m not sure how these high fees can continue to be justified. I heard this same feedback from several of the attendees and hope that the SIA will reconsider their fees before next years show.

All in all it was a great conference. If you didn’t attend, you certainly missed out.

This article is brought to you by Staffing Robot, a premier source of intelligence for the healthcare staffing industry.

Sets Industry Systems Integration Standard and Increases ROI for Healthcare Suppliers

ShiftWise, the nation’s leading provider of end-to-end workforce solutions now provides seamless data integration with Clearview Staffing Software, the foremost provider of business management staffing software for healthcare suppliers. The integration between the ShiftWise and ClearviewTSS systems eliminates dual data entry between the two systems, provides suppliers with instant access to job requisitions and delivers faster and more accurate applicant submissions.

Healthcare staffing suppliers, via the Web, can now electronically link the ClearviewTSS solution with the ShiftWise Vendor Management System (VMS). Hundreds of healthcare staffing suppliers using ClearviewTSS can now place medical professionals at facilities using ShiftWise without leaving the Clearview system. Key transactions between the two systems, such as sending and receiving job orders, staff confirmations and staff profile management can now be conducted instantly and seamlessly.

“The ability to instantly share data between ShiftWise and Clearview will dramatically increase the speed at which we conduct our day-to-day staffing operations,” said Tim Fagan, CEO of American Nursing Services. “We’ve been using the two systems independently for years, and with great success. Now, the ability to integrate the solutions will give us a competitive advantage over other suppliers.”

“Suppliers are increasingly pursuing their own strategic growth initiatives through VMS programs, and our alliance with ShiftWise allows us to make it even easier for our clients to pursue these new opportunities within the healthcare staffing industry,” said David Gorman, president and CEO of Clearview Staffing Software. “ShiftWise has proven to be an industry leader in healthcare VMS and we are excited about the opportunities this partnership presents.”

“ShiftWise has set the standard for systems integration in this industry. By connecting with the broadest range of healthcare scheduling systems available hospitals can efficiently connect with their staffing providers of choice,” said Jason Lander, founder and vice president of product development for ShiftWise. “Our integration with Clearview Staffing Software delivers a significant advantage to our clients and suppliers by making their internal business processes more efficient and increasing their ability to quickly fill open job requisitions.”

About ShiftWise

Founded by healthcare staffing professionals, ShiftWise delivers a more efficient way for hospitals and staffing suppliers to quickly and efficiently find and place supplemental healthcare workers. The Web-based ShiftWise service provides hospitals with an unprecedented level of control over their staffing processes, consolidating staff search, booking, billing and record-keeping into a single, easy-to-use interface. The staff self-scheduling component of the ShiftWise solution dramatically improves the recruitment, retention and overall morale of the hospitals internal staff.  Based in Portland, Ore., ShiftWise provides end-to-end workforce management solutions to hundreds of healthcare organizations and multiple state hospital associations nationwide. To learn more about ShiftWise, call 866-399-2220 or visit www.shiftwise.net.

About Clearview Staffing Software

Clearview Staffing Software is a market-leading developer of business solutions designed exclusively for the healthcare staffing industry. Our broad set of web-based, on-demand technology enables us to deliver custom solutions that are unmatched in both usability and functionality. Our flagship products, ClearviewTSS and ClearviewRSS, allow staffing organizations to manage their entire business from start to finish, including everything from the fundamentals of recruiting and contact management to credential compliance, shift and assignment scheduling, and highly sophisticated payroll and billing management. For more information, visit www.clearviewtss.com or contact Mike Wejrowski by phone: 972.381.9777 ext. 435, or email: mikew@clearviewtss.com.