SSMC - Supplemental Staffing Management Corporation - Managing relationships between Staffing Agencies and the Healthcare Clients they serve.

SSMC
Supplemental Staffing Management Corporation
"Managing relationships between Staffing Agencies and their Healthcare Clients"

The Supplemental Staffing Program (SSP)

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Overview of the SSP
The Supplemental Staffing Program (SSP) is a unique industry concept, developed exclusively by SSMC to support vendor management. The SSP is unique due to its two component structure. The first component establishes a formal process to support the procurement of supplemental staffing services. This aspect of the SSP is comprehensive, considering not only the initial RFP and procurement process, but also providing for full management support for the relationship during the entire contract period. The second component offers an on-line Web-based system (Web SSP) to support this process. This on-line system is modular in design, offering optional use for each and every system function. The SSP defines a process which supports the full life cycle, while the on-line system complements this process by providing a secure means of shared communications between both the staffing agencies and the businesses they serve. The SSP was created by leveraging off of SSMC's in-depth industry experience with staffing across a wide variety of industries. The result was implementation of an on-line system to support all aspects of the business model. Web SSP has comprehensive functionality that supports the full life cycle of the supplemental staffing process, from the initial RFP process through to the completion of individual employment engagements. Following is a brief explanation of the business model and a discussion of the steps involved with the SSP.

Defining the Business Group
The initial step within the SSP is to define the group of businesses that will be participating in the process, along with the primary representatives from each entity within the group. Members from SSMC begin the process by formally presenting the plan that is most appropriate to the business group involved. With knowledge of the business activity and the support service types to be involved, SSMC is able to present a recommended Request for Proposal (RFP) for review by the business group. The RFP is then refined, as is necessary, based upon feedback from the business group. Upon acceptance of the initial RFP, the business group documents their interest in the form of a "Letter of Intent" to pursue the process. At this stage in the process there is no formal obligation from the business group to legally engage any vendor moving forward, only to commit to pursue the process.

Letter of Intent
SSMC presents a recommendation of potential vendors to the business group based upon its own knowledge of supplemental staffing vendors for the industry and input from the business group on the historical activity and experience of staffing vendors. This resultant group of agencies is typically diverse, including both smaller agencies and larger agencies. In addition, the list typically includes both agencies that are currently conducting business with the business group and also agencies that may never had conducted business with the group, but have a proven track record with other similar businesses. An initial letter is sent from SSMC to all of the agencies that the business group has potential interest in utilizing. This letter indicates the "Letter of Intent", which is just that, an intention of the business group to conduct business, under specific terms, with the list of agencies. Only those agencies that respond favorably to pursuing this working relationship and demonstrate meeting the qualifications agreed upon are involved with the continued RFP process.

The RFP
An RFP is then sent to all agencies that respond to the initial letter of correspondence that references the Letter of Intent. The first round of the RFP requires all agencies to respond to the RFP on-line via the Web SSP. This requirement for on-line response allows for simplified comparative analysis. The questions on the initial round of the RFP process are relatively brief in scope, to quickly narrow down the list of potential vendors, while minimizing review time. SSMC presents an analytical recommendation to the business group for vendors to move to the second round, and business group feedback helps to finalize this list. The second round of the RFP requests more detailed information from the vendors. Included in this second round is the opportunity for final pricing. Second round responses are also input on-line in the Web SSP system for simplified comparative analysis. As is the case with the first round, SSMC provides a recommendation and incorporates business group feedback to determine final agency selection. In some cases, depending on vendor feedback and business group cost controls and/or any other issues, there may be one additional opportunity for agencies to readjust their pricing and/or finalize agreement terms.

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The Staffing Agreement
SSMC's experience with the supplemental staffing industry enables the construction of a Staffing Agreement that is appropriate for the business group AND sufficiently comprehensive to protect all parties involved, and to ensure quality control. The objective of each proposed SSMC Staffing Agreement is to develop a single standard agreement that can be used for all agencies, while at the same time considering the special interests of the companies participating.

Vendor List Management
Upon final agency selection, the agency database of contact information is automatically in place, given the on-line RFP process, and immediately accessible by the business group. In addition to maintaining contact information, business licenses and certificates of insurance, and their associated expirations, are also maintained within this forum. During the contract period, any new agencies that wish to enter into the process can be deferred to the SSMC Web Site for potential inclusion into the existing contract period (during the Quarterly Quality Assurance Review) and/or to be added to the subsequent contract period's bidders list. This minimizes the burden on the business group to entertain solicitations from agencies since they are simply deferred to SSMC.

Vacancy Postings and Responses
Staffing requests can be posted and tracked through the Web SSP. The on-line posting document is simple in nature, allowing it to be composed quickly. The candidate response form, which is focused by requiring the agency to provide a candidate response which is truly indicative of the posting for which it is intended. This process minimizes unwanted and/or non-applicable candidate submissions. In addition, the Web SSP has the capability to retain candidate responses for potential use at a later time, perhaps for a subsequent need of a similar nature. This on-line posting and response forum reduces blind faxing and minimizes the responses by candidates who are not qualified for the specific posting.

Personnel Management
Although the specifics vary from industry to industry, all employers require certain documentation for each candidate that is selected for employment. The Web SSP contains an employee tracking component that captures the most critical and fundamental information on each employee, i.e. drug screening, health information, reference checks, OIG list checks, background checks, licensure, etc. In addition, the Web SSP has a means to track the dates associated with these elements, providing quick access to expirations. This personnel section of the Web SSP quite often serves as useful aid in supporting internal company audits. Additional elements of the personnel section of the Web SSP have provisions to monitor employee performance, not only periodic employee evaluations, but also documentation of performance issues.

The Web SSP is Optional
The Web SSP, the on-line system which parallels the SSP process, is entirely optional for the business group. SSMC acknowledges that even in today's technologically advanced society, many professionals are accustomed to long term practices which have proven to be successful. As a result, although the SSP is a formal process that is utilized, the complimentary Web SSP on-line system is optional. Those businesses choosing to retain traditional methods for records management will still have the capability to continue to use these same means without disrupting the process. Hard copy materials of all on-line forms are provided to all business groups for this purpose. Furthermore, the Web SSP system is modular, thus allowing for some functions to be used on-line, while having other functions used off-line in a hard copy mode. The only exception to the on-line aspect of the SSP process is the RFP. The RFP is required to be completed on-line for those staffing agencies that wish to participate.

Fees for the SSP
Both the SSP process and on-line Web SSP system have no associated fees to the business groups that utilize them. The supplemental staffing agencies pay a nominal administrative fee to SSMC for all supplemental staffing services that are provided. This administrative fee paid by the supplemental staffing agencies to SSMC is a function for the volume of services that are provided.

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SSMC@SupplementalStaffing.com

http://www.SupplementalStaffing.com

(866) 570-SSMC