By Melissa Wirkus, associate editor
Jan. 20, 2010 - Worried about the qualifications of your temporary clinical staff? You don't have to be. The key is to have them prescreened and prepared to begin on day one, with the help of an experienced quality services team that is looking out for your interests. These professionals, who serve as the standards authorities of your staffing company, can work with you to prepare qualified staff with the right credentials, licenses and skills to begin immediately helping your patients.
But what does a quality services team do?
From obtaining and maintaining compliance throughout a traveler's assignment to serving as the direct liaison between the healthcare professional and facility, AMN Healthcare's quality services department upholds and maintains the standards and requirements set by its client facilities.
Kim Windsor, RN, MSN, MBA, DHA, vice president of clinical services for AMN, oversees the quality services team and understands the importance of obtaining compliance throughout a traveler's assignment.
"Quality services is a team of dedicated professionals who are assigned to a specific facility and are experts in the credentialing process for that facility as well as experts in the state and federal requirements," Windsor explained.
The expertise and precise knowledge of the quality services team is a tremendous benefit to both healthcare professionals and facility clients. Quality service analysts act as a direct liaison between the facility and the healthcare professional, ensuring that all requirements are met along the way.
As part of the company's commitment to providing qualified and experienced healthcare professionals, the AMN quality services team works closely with each traveler to guide them through the credentialing process--which helps every facility and their hiring staff rest assured that the traveler's requirements are fully satisfied before he or she begins the assignment.
"We have to make sure a nurse that is booked has the right licensing, education, medical requirements and experience for that particular assignment and facility," Windsor explained. "We make sure each healthcare professional has the appropriate qualifications to do their job."
Teresa Reynoso, quality services analyst, is one of the professionals tasked with making sure that every requirement, set of paperwork and medical examination is complete and on file before a traveler reports for work.
"We partner alongside recruitment to foster a strong bond with travelers. We ensure credentialing is current and the requirements are met for each facility," she explained. "We keep travelers motivated and on task to meet requirement deadlines. For facilities, that means taking the pressure off the nurse managers and staff because it is a very time-consuming process."
Ensuring that all requirements and regulations are met in a timely manner gives the facility one less thing to worry about.
"AMN's reputation for quality healthcare professionals is executed through the dedicated resources of quality services," Windsor said. "We are able to make sure our nurses meet the needs of the clients to provide quality care to patients."
In addition to coordinating drug screens and background checks, and assisting travelers with other requirements, Reynoso and other quality services team members also strive to assist their facility clients whenever they can--often going above and beyond baseline standards.
Because of AMN's thorough screening process, Reynoso was able to lend a hand to a facility when their courier lost an entire group of specimens for their independent drug screen right before a group of travelers were set to begin an assignment. Since Reynoso had already ensured the travelers for that facility had completed AMN's mandatory drug screen, she was able to get the results and specimens from AMN's drug screen to the nurse manager at the facility in a matter of hours--preventing the assignment from being delayed and disrupting patient care.
"Getting the facility the results of our independent drug screen saved time and saved the nurse manager the headache and trouble that comes with having to postpone a traveler's assignment," she said. "It's a lot of saving we do; we are here to save the day."
Windsor points out that a good quality services team can save the day in a number of ways, by preparing each traveler to begin work and providing superior customer service. This allows facilities to focus on what matters most--providing excellent patient care.
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