To the U.S. Division of Protection (DoD), it was simply one other big-dollar contract — on this case, $43 billion over 15 years. It didn’t contain revolutionary naval vessels, fighter jets, or weapons programs. As a substitute, it concerned staffing navy well being care services. However make no mistake: It’s revolutionary, too.

In Might 2024, the Protection Well being Company (DHA) awarded 11 medical staffing companies in healthcare to recruit healthcare professionals and healthcare administrative workers underneath the Medical Q-Coded Help and Providers-Subsequent Technology (MQS2-NG) contract. This contract covers staffing for healthcare positions at 591 navy hospitals and clinics nationwide and in Puerto Rico, Guam and U.S. possessions. These hospitals and clinics make use of or contract with greater than 100,000 healthcare suppliers and assist workers who serve greater than 9.6 million active-duty, retired navy personnel and their households. MQS2-NG was created as a result of it has develop into more and more troublesome to fill these 100,000-plus healthcare positions.

There are a number of the reason why the federal government has taken a very long time to spend on this new $43 billion contract for healthcare staff. The present doctor scarcity within the U.S. may attain 86,000 by 2036, with vital shortages in nursing, behavioral well being, and social work anticipated to persist for years to come back. Demographics don’t assist: the healthcare-intensive inhabitants 75 and older is predicted to develop by greater than half by 2036, whilst an estimated one-third of physicians retire inside the subsequent decade (42% of whom at the moment are 55 or older).

DoD adapts to a altering healthcare workforce panorama

Working within the navy healthcare business has its benefits. Affected person ratios are decrease, there isn’t any coping with a number of insurers or spending time and vitality on pre-authorizations, and the hours present a fantastic work-life steadiness. You additionally serve the better good of your nation in a tangible method. However elements of the navy healthcare system have made it tougher to remain totally staffed. Many bases and services are in distant areas, the hiring course of could be prolonged, and the accreditation and safety clearance processes can pose further hurdles. Earlier contracting approaches have made it troublesome to adapt to an more and more aggressive marketplace for medical professionals.

The Protection Well being Company must be recommended for recognizing the necessity for adaptation a decade in the past. That led to the unique $7.5 billion MQS contract, awarded in late 2016. It may be thought of a average success. It introduced non-public sector experience into the navy staffing sphere, which was very properly obtained. Nonetheless, when COVID-19 hit, it grew to become very troublesome to seek out, recruit, and retain healthcare candidates on the charges set underneath the MQS contract three years earlier. That, plus rising demand within the healthcare business, led to a fill charge of solely 71%.

Then got here MQS2-NG. What’s revolutionary about it? The DoD’s openness to new approaches to recruiting and staffing options, its embrace of knowledge to seek out certified healthcare professionals, and the pliability to do what it takes to herald the workers wanted to supply world-class care. On the coronary heart of all of it is the reliance on these 11 authorities and personal healthcare staffing companies to herald hundreds of contract healthcare professionals. These companies provide a number of benefits over the Protection Well being Company, which does all of its recruiting in-house.

What Healthcare Staffing Specialists Contribute to Army Healthcare

First, it's all they do, to allow them to concentrate on it totally and don't need to combat competing priorities that may divert workers or budgets elsewhere.

Second, they will present deep insights into the state of the healthcare labor market. They know the place the healthcare deserts are (locations with out a healthcare system inside 150 miles) and what it takes to draw certified staff to these locations. They’ve performed analyses with greater than 300 specialties by area and community.

Their definition of “areas or networks” is granular. It’s clear sufficient that hiring, say, a board-certified registered nurse anesthetist would require completely different incentives and pay packages at Keesler Air Power Base in Mississippi than it could at Camp Pendleton close to San Diego. However hiring at Camp Pendleton isn’t simple both. That a part of Southern California could be thought of three completely different markets, every with a unique inhabitants and, from a hiring perspective, worth factors. The staffing companies will make a residing by retaining monitor of all this, continually informing Protection Well being Company officers of what it is going to value to rent medical personnel and why.

Third, staffing specialists in non-public or civilian well being care convey an outdoor perspective with a eager sense of the state of well being care. For instance, they’ve efficiently advocated for telehealth in areas comparable to behavioral well being and scientific social work. That may scale back prices, velocity the time to fill workers relative to on-base staffing, and entice expertise who could not wish to commute or relocate. Total, the pliability constructed into the MQS2-NG contract has allowed for better collaboration between these staffing specialists and Protection Well being Company officers, and I’m assured that this may end in a significantly better fill charge than 71% sooner quite than later.

Army innovation is available in many types. A revolution in the best way the U.S. navy recruits and staffs its lots of of well being care services will not be as suggestive as a swarm of autonomous drones. However its affect on navy readiness and the well-being of its personnel will likely be far better.

Editor's Be aware: The writer's firm was one in all a number of healthcare medical staffing companies awarded contracts.

Picture credit: Chinnapong, Getty Photographs

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