Dayton-Area Recruiting Firm Provides Contractors for Hospital Health IT Project
Dayton, OH (PRWEB) July 24, 2013 -- Spectrum Career, LLC, marked the launch of its contract staffing services with the placement of 15 contractors at a Northwest Ohio hospital.
The contractors provided “Go Live Support” to physicians, nurses, and emergency room staff who are using the hospital’s new order entry software to order labs and pharmaceuticals, said Spectrum Career Founder Ray Gooch. They were placed under an internship program initiated by the HIT Midwest Consortium of Colleges and the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA). Through the program, OHA member facilities can utilize the services of Health IT students on a contract basis at a discounted cost to help them implement new Health IT systems. Spectrum Career is one of the recruiting firms that OHA has contracted with to recruit contractors for the internship program.
The program is a win-win for the hospitals and the students, Gooch said. The students provide hospitals with a low-cost way to achieve “meaningful use” of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) under the deadlines established by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) while the students benefit from the real-world experience the internship program provides.
“We have found the workers being provided through this initiative bring valued support for the senior consultants that are brought in by hospitals,” Gooch said. “Those senior consultants can focus on the critical back end solutions while the interns provide at the elbow support for physicians and other clinical staff. Of course, this is an excellent opportunity to gain the experience they need to make their entrance into the industry.”
In fact, Health IT interns from similar, nearby projects have gone on from $12-$15 per hour internships to secure full-time employment with six-figure annual salaries, Gooch said. He said that the contractors he has placed have the same potential.
“They are really walking away with a treasure trove of knowledge,” Gooch said.
This project was Spectrum Career’s first foray into contact staffing. The firm places its contractors through the contract staffing back-office services of Top Echelon Contracting, which becomes the legal employer of the contractors. As such, TEC handles all the financial, administrative, and legal aspects of the contract placements, including creating legal contracts with the clients and contractors, payroll processing and funding, tax withholdings and filings, unemployment, Workers’ Compensation, background checks, employee paperwork and issues, contractor benefits, and more.
Gooch, who has been recruiting for nearly 27 years, expects his firm to continue placing contractors in the Health IT arena, specifically in rural hospitals and physician offices that are just starting to implement their systems.
“Rural facilities don’t have as much access to Health IT professionals as their urban counterparts, and they are in locations where travel becomes an issue,” Gooch said. “We need to make sure that market is served.”
Spectrum Career is also looking to expand its contract staffing services into other industries. For example, the firm has been providing career coaching services for colleges and universities across the country as a part of the DOL ARRA Grant for Other Emerging Industries, which is providing training for workers to pursue careers in a number of emerging industries, including Biotechnology and Renewable Energy.
“There is a significant portion of the workforce that has received training in these up and coming industries,” Gooch said. “These are markets where I see us doing the same thing we did in Health IT, and it’s probably going to be contract work. Biotech companies are accustomed to utilizing contract and contract-to-hire arrangements as part of their long term hiring strategy.”
Julie Graff, Top Echelon Contracting, http://TopEchelonContracting.com, (888) 627-3678 434, [email protected]
Share this article