Three Essential Qualities for a Vendor Management System

Healthcare today is facing some unprecedented challenges. With a growing demand for services and a shrinking labor pool, many healthcare organizations have difficulty meeting patient demand and maintaining a high standard of care while adhering to budgetary guidelines. Vendor management systems (VMS) can be an invaluable asset to healthcare organizations.

An effective vendor management system offers many benefits. With a contingent workforce, healthcare organizations have access to on-demand employment and are always prepared to provide high-quality patient care even if there is a significant increase in demand for service. Additionally, scaling staff up or down is easier with a contingent workforce, making operations more cost-effective according to the demand for services.

Managing a contingent workforce takes significant time and organization. A vendor management system is a cost-effective way to manage your workforce, but you need to choose the right VMS to benefit. How do you know what VMS will be the best fit for your company? Below, find three of the most important considerations when choosing a VMS for your healthcare organization.

Compliance Management

Maintaining compliance is critical for healthcare organizations and staffing. When working with a vendor management system, it is important to work with one that understands the importance of compliance. Maintaining compliance is critical for several reasons, including:

●  Patient Safety: Patient safety is crucial, and regulations are in place to ensure patient safety is not compromised. Maintaining compliance with regulations and guidelines ensures that patients remain protected against harm.

●  Legal Liability: Litigation is time-consuming and costly, and failing to comply with regulations can result in lawsuits, as well as penalties and fines. Additionally, lawsuits can damage the reputation of a healthcare organization and erode patient trust. Maintaining compliance helps hospitals and other healthcare organizations avoid lawsuits and legal liability.

●  Patient Care: In addition to patient safety, patient care is at the center of all healthcare organizations. Most healthcare providers must have the necessary training, qualifications, experience, and certifications to provide services. Maintaining compliance with qualifications for employment ensures that patients receive a high standard of care. 

●  Ethical Considerations: Healthcare providers must treat patients with dignity and respect. Additionally, they must provide care without discrimination due to race, gender, or other factors. Compliance addresses ethical considerations in healthcare, ensuring equal access to healthcare services. 

To provide safe, respectful, and quality patient care, healthcare organizations must be in compliance with all established guidelines. An effective vendor management system will locate qualified professionals for open staffing positions, and thoroughly vet each candidate. Requirements can be set based on a specific position or location to help a VMS find qualified candidates, and further candidate vetting ensures hospitals and other healthcare organizations maintain compliance.

Vendor Neutrality

Neutrality is an important consideration when choosing a VMS for your healthcare organization. If a VMS is owned by a staffing agency then it would be considered a managed service provider (MSP), and its overall design and functionality will be driven by the financial objectives of the owners. The goal of a typical MSP is to fill as many of the staffing needs as it can directly in order to leverage its client and vendor relationships.   Staffing agencies (vendors) are typically reluctant to engage with many MSP’s but are usually forced to do so to increase their business revenues.  Some healthcare organizations don’t fully understand the most common MSP objectives and may engage too quickly out of desperation to immediately supplement their staffing needs with any healthcare workers that the MSP may have readily available.  This can be costly and may not align with the overall finical goals of the healthcare organization and can ultimately impact the continuity of healthcare services.  

Vendor neutrality attracts staffing agencies nationwide to participate in VMS programs.  This type of level playing field incentivizes staffing agencies to fill positions without fear of having their candidates solicited by a competitor such as an MSP. Ultimately the recruitment results for the healthcare organizations will improve significantly and the administrative burdens will decrease through streamlined communications with the vendor-neutral VMS.  When a VMS is truly vendor-neutral, there is no hidden agenda and no conflict with potential candidate solicitation which encourages vendor participation and expands client access to high-quality healthcare services.

Management Solution is not a staffing agency and is vendor-neutral. We have extensive staffing experience, which puts us in a unique position. With our staffing industry experience, established industry affiliations, and strong negotiation skills, we help healthcare organizations create cost-effective contingent workforce programs.

Reporting Capabilities

Healthcare organizations must make decisions with the information available to them. For effective and efficient operation, healthcare systems need to understand what they spend money on and when money is spent. Without access to this data, it is hard to make sound decisions. Before choosing a VMS, you must know what type of data you need to make informed decisions.

Transparency and clear communication are critical factors in improving access to the labor supply and increasing the chance of finding qualified candidates quickly. A vendor management system should be able to provide an organization with all workforce data at any time. Providing real-time reporting and analytics allows healthcare organizations to carefully monitor the performance of their contingent workforce and ultimately, to make informed staffing decisions.

At Management Solution, we offer a full-service on- or off-site program to healthcare organizations. This allows our clients to consolidate and manage workforce development through a customizable web-based program. With increased access and the ability to view all workforce data, our clients can make informed decisions that benefit their organization.

Ready to get started? Contact Management Solution today to start talking solutions. 

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