Managing a contingent workforce program is no easy task. Maintaining control over each aspect of the extended workforce necessitates time and organization, regardless of whether your organization consists of one or more medical facilities.
Healthcare facilities are increasingly looking for technology to streamline operations as they become aware of the advantages and drawbacks of employing temporary workers. To effectively manage a contingent workforce program, they look to vendor management solutions (VMS).
The problem is: Which of the available options will have the essential features necessary to accommodate the use cases of hospitals and other medical facilities? To implement an effective contingent labor program, healthcare organizations must have seven essential features in their vendor management platforms.
If you're thinking about buying a VMS, you should make sure it can grow with your business. Your institution's contingent labor program is likely to continue expanding in the future as healthcare organizations increase their contingent staffing percentages. You wouldn't want to select a solution that will require new technology in a year or two to meet your expanding requirements. Depending on your specific requirements, look for a VMS that lets you add new facilities or projects in a centralized or decentralized manner.
While arrangements frequently share comparative functionalities, not all board frameworks are constructed similarly about security. Healthcare organizations must ensure that their technology partner is highly secure because they store a lot of sensitive information in one location. At the very least, a dependable vendor management system should have SOC compliance, penetration testing, ISO certifications, and GDPR/privacy shield.
In addition to securing your data, data retention and auditing are two other aspects that healthcare facilities would want to consider. You must be able to get all the data you need for audits and compliance from a VMS.
Medical facilities require a rate management system that is adaptable and meets their requirements in an environment that is constantly shifting. A solution that can meet the needs of the healthcare industry must be able to set different rate configurations for overtime, on-call, shift differential, and exempt vs. non-exempt overtime.
At Vemsta, we have identified every variation of rates that must be applied to a healthcare worker. This includes having a worker receive different pay rates based on the floor they are working on. To avoid a financial nightmare in the future, check that technology can accommodate all rate types when evaluating it.
Compliance is at the center of medical staffing. When bringing healthcare providers to your facility, peace of mind is essential. While you may be content with your full-time staff's compliance, are you completely confident in the credentials of your contingent workforce?
When looking for a vendor management systems healthcare staffing, look beyond the fundamental compliance management features to ensure that your tool can:
Make requirements specific to the location and/or position. Automate the onboarding process for new employees. Track any equipment distributed to your contingent workforce. Track attachments. Send alerts of expiring compliance.
Because healthcare operates at a rapid pace, your system integrations must keep up. A dependable VMS ought to be able to seamlessly connect to the various systems that medical facilities require on-site. Behind-the-scenes technology known as APIs will assist you in achieving this.
Many automated and time-saving solutions can be made possible by APIs. Some examples include:
As previously stated, healthcare is a highly complex and ever-evolving industry that requires configuration. When evaluating technology, one thing to keep in mind is how difficult it is to make changes on the fly. For capturing specific information, you may need to urgently add new fields to a page.
You need a system that you can quickly modify to prevent such setbacks:
You need to know exactly what kind of data you need and at what level before choosing a VMS. From simple embedded providers to comprehensive reporting suites, vendor management systems offer a wide range of reporting options.
Finding a technology with pre-built standard reports and the ability to add custom data as needed is the best option. You can generate reports for all user types as a result of this. The ability to send reports directly to employees' inboxes, eliminating the need for them to log in, is an excellent additional feature.
Healthcare staffing moves quickly, making it harder to find qualified candidates to fill open positions. You must find a VMS that can help you automate every aspect of your contingent workforce cycle and a tool that can adapt to your needs to ensure a smooth and effective process.
We at Vemsta are aware of the challenges healthcare facilities face in terms of staffing and the technology they require to address them. Your program's efficiency can be increased while compliance, spending, onboarding, and other aspects can be controlled by our technology.
Have a look at our VMS for yourself to see how it works for your healthcare facility. Get in touch with our experts. We'd be happy to show you how our technology can help your contingent workforce program.
 in Healthcare Workforce Management.webp)
The complexity of healthcare organizations is at an all-time high. With staffing shortages, labor costs skyrocketing, and continuous regulatory changes to adhere to, overall management of the workforce is one of the growing headaches for hospital administrators. That's where Vendor Management Systems (VMS) comes in, not as yet another tech solution to add to the pile, but as the central nervous system that can actually navigate the chaos.
Having a VMS is like having a universal remote for managing your external staffing vendors! Instead of managing relationships with each of your many staffing agencies through phone calls, emails, and spreadsheets working separately, a hospital staffing software is a single platform that allows you to post job needs, receive competing bids from pre-vetted agencies, and track and monitor everything from candidate submissions to final invoices.
Healthcare organizations today are spending massive amounts on contingent labor. Contract labor expenses have skyrocketed from just 2% of total labor costs in 2019 to 11% in 2022. That's not just a budget line item - it's a crisis that's forcing hospitals to make impossible choices between financial sustainability and adequate staffing. The traditional approach of managing multiple staffing vendors manually creates what industry experts call "rogue hiring" - when departments bypass HR to engage vendors directly, leading to inconsistent quality and inflated costs. Meanwhile, the average hospital nursing staff now consists of 12% contingent nurses, making effective vendor management not optional, but essential.
Remember the last time you had a critical shift to fill at 6 PM on a Friday? With traditional methods, that means calling multiple agencies, comparing rates, and hoping someone has qualified staff available. A hospital staffing software flips this script entirely. Post your need once, and pre-vetted agencies compete for the placement. You get faster fills, competitive pricing, and complete visibility into who's bidding and at what rates.
Industry data shows hospitals using a VMS can reduce vendor management costs by up to 25%. This isn't just about negotiating better rates - though the competitive bidding process certainly helps with that. It's about eliminating the hidden costs of manual processes: duplicate invoices, overpayments, and the administrative time spent managing vendor relationships.
In healthcare, compliance isn't negotiable. A healthcare staffing agency software ensures all contingent workers meet licensing, credentialing, and certification requirements before assignment. This automated credentialing process doesn't just reduce risk - it eliminates the nightmare scenario of discovering compliance issues after someone's already working in your facility.
Modern VMS platforms aren't just databases - they're sophisticated technology solutions built for healthcare's unique challenges. Advanced scheduling tools handle everything from shift planning to last-minute coverage needs. Real-time timekeeping integrates with your payroll systems. Analytics dashboards give you instant visibility into fill rates, vendor performance, and cost trends.
Healthcare ROI isn’t just about saving money. A Vendor Management System (VMS) drives value in four key areas: cost reduction, quality improvement, process efficiency, and risk reduction. Costs drop through streamlined workflows and competitive vendor rates. Quality rises with better visibility into vendor performance. Efficiency improves as staff spend less time on admin and more on patients. Risk is reduced with stronger compliance and credential tracking.
Real results prove it: Ardent Health Services gained $2.5M in revenue in one year using healthcare staffing VMS, while Logan Physicians Practice added $400K through faster credentialing.
Healthcare can’t keep managing contingent staff the old way. By 2026, 6.5 million workers will leave while only 1.9 million step in—the gap is alarming. A Vendor Management System (VMS) isn’t just about cutting costs; it’s about survival. Today, a healthcare staffing agency software streamlines. Tomorrow, it powers strategy with AI-driven candidate matching, predictive staffing, and real-time credential checks.
The real question: can healthcare afford to delay? In an industry where patient care depends on the right staff at the right time, a VMS isn’t optional—it’s the line between chaos and control.
Summary: Healthcare staffing is complex, but it doesn’t have to be chaotic. Discover how healthcare workforce management software helps hospitals and agencies streamline scheduling, cut overtime costs, ensure compliance, and keep staff happier.
The healthcare industry is among the fastest pacing industries in the world. Time is always limited from patient care to compliance obligations. For many hospitals, clinics and staffing agencies, filling shifts and managing schedules is an ongoing and repeated pain.
Schedules can change as a result of nurses calling off sick, account overlaps in shifts, compliance rules change, and before you know it, you find managers looking more like paper pushers than patient caregivers.
This is where healthcare workforce management software can help lift a burden off your already stretched out shoulders and enable you to grow as quickly as the changing environment. It has gone from a "nice to have" to necessary technology to run operations smoothly, control costs, and ensure compliance in trade where failing to do so can lead to consequences.
Healthcare is not like other industries where work is more predictable. A clinic can’t simply turn away patients because a nurse is missing. In hospitals, someone has to be on call 24/7. On top of that, there are rules around working hours, overtime, staff certifications, and patient-to-staff ratios. Often, scheduling is still handled using spreadsheets or old legacy systems. That means more paperwork, delays in approving shifts, and managers burning extra hours fixing mistakes. The biggest downside? Staff get frustrated and patients may face delays in care. Furthermore, manual scheduling just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Workforce management software is built specifically to tackle these issues. Instead of managers juggling Excel sheets or endless calls to fill a shift, the software automates much of this process. It provides real-time scheduling, tracks compliance automatically, and even integrates with payroll and HR systems.
If you think about it, it's like moving from driving a manual car in city traffic to cruising with an automatic. Less stress, fewer mistakes, and more time to work on actual management instead of administrative hassle.
The best part is flexibility. Role-based scheduling, tracking specific skill sets, or role assignment to certain procedures—it’s all handled in a few clicks.
While scheduling is at the core, good management software goes beyond just filling shifts. Here are the practical upsides it brings:
Too often, some employees are overworked while others sit underutilized. Smart software balances workloads fairly, tracking hours across all departments.
Labor is the largest cost in healthcare. With proper workforce management tools, overtime can be reduced, agency spending can be tracked, and unnecessary costs can be avoided.
Healthcare workers are under enough pressure already. Giving them predictable schedules, easy ways to swap shifts, and clarity about their hours helps retain staff in a competitive market.
Staying compliant with healthcare rules is non-negotiable. Workforce management systems automatically flag when a nurse without the right certification is slotted for a shift or when someone is about to exceed legal hour limits.
For staffing agencies, the software is not just a convenience—it’s an edge in the market. Agencies thrive on speed: the quicker they can fill roles, the stronger their reputation with hospitals and clinics. This is where healthcare staffing agency software makes all the difference. It lets agencies keep track of available talent, match them with openings instantly, and communicate faster with both clients and staff. The result is fewer missed opportunities and more contracts closed.
Some agencies also work with what’s called a healthcare staffing VMS (vendor management system). This platform streamlines how hospitals request staff, how agencies supply them, and how contracts are handled.
Not all systems are made equal. Healthcare organizations and agencies should look at:
The healthcare sector faces constant pressure—from staff shortages to rising patient needs. Old-school scheduling methods are not only inefficient but risky. Embracing modern solutions like healthcare staffing agency software is no longer optional—it’s a competitive necessity. By adopting the right system, healthcare leaders can focus less on chasing signatures and shuffling rosters, and more on what really matters: delivering quality patient care while building a satisfied, loyal workforce.
Healthcare organizations today face unprecedented challenges in managing their workforce and vendor relationships. From chronic staffing shortages to rising operational costs, the industry is turning to technology solutions to streamline operations and improve patient outcomes.
At the forefront of this digital transformation stands Vendor Management Systems (VMS) - sophisticated platforms that are rapidly becoming indispensable tools for healthcare facilities nationwide. But is VMS truly the future of healthcare? Let's delve into its transformative impact.
Healthcare vendor management software (VMS) is a special type of software that helps healthcare organizations and their vendors work together more efficiently. These vendors can be anything from staffing agencies to companies that sell medical equipment and services. The software helps healthcare providers automate buying processes, keep an eye on vendor performance, make sure they follow the rules, and handle contracts in a timely manner.
The healthcare staffing market is facing significant demand pressure. Projections estimate the global healthcare staffing market will grow to $82.92 billion by 2034, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.97%. Factors driving this growth include an aging population requiring more care, the rise of chronic diseases, and ongoing workforce shortages across all healthcare sectors.
Healthcare staffing VMS technology is increasingly regarded as essential in overcoming these challenges. According to industry insights, 60% of healthcare leaders maintain optimistic outlooks about managing staffing challenges, largely because of technology adoption.
1. Streamlined Operations and Efficiency
VMS automates and centralizes vendor and staffing management, reducing manual tasks and human error, saving time, and improving decision-making with data insights.
2. Cost Savings
By optimizing vendor and staffing management, VMS helps healthcare organizations secure better deals, reduce errors, and make efficient use of resources, leading to cost savings.
3. Improved Compliance and Risk Management
VMS ensures vendors and staff meet regulatory standards by automating compliance checks, reducing the risk of legal issues or penalties.
4. Better Vendor and Staffing Relationships
A VMS fosters effective communication and performance tracking with vendors and staffing agencies, improving collaboration and strengthening partnerships.
Challenges and Implementation Considerations
While the benefits of healthcare staffing VMS are clear, some challenges remain. Initial investment costs can be high, posing difficulties for smaller facilities. Integrating VMS platforms with existing Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Hospital Information Systems (HIS) also requires attention to technical detail. Moreover, successful adoption hinges on managing change effectively. Staff training and support are critical to overcoming resistance and ensuring smooth workflow transitions. Fortunately, VMS providers are continuously enhancing system usability and integration capabilities, easing these hurdles.
The healthcare VMS software landscape continues evolving with emerging technologies. Artificial intelligence and machine learning integration are enabling predictive staffing models and automated candidate matching. Mobile applications are facilitating remote workforce management, while blockchain technology promises enhanced credential verification security. Industry adoption is accelerating as healthcare organizations recognize the competitive advantages VMS technology provides. With healthcare facing continued staffing shortages and cost pressures, facilities implementing comprehensive vendor management systems gain significant operational advantages over those relying on manual processes.
Healthcare vendor management software is not just a trend; it is becoming an essential tool for healthcare organizations striving to optimize their staffing operations. By improving efficiency, ensuring compliance, and providing valuable insights, healthcare VMS software is paving the way for a more agile and responsive healthcare workforce.
Would you like to embrace VMS towards a sustainable and
