Nursefinders Inc. and Allina Hospitals & Clinics Sign Three-Year Managed Staffing Partnership Agreement

• January 30, 2006
• Arlington, Texas & Minneapolis

Nursefinders, Inc. and Allina Hospitals & Clinics, have signed a three-year agreement naming Nursefinders as their agency staffing management partner and single point of contact for temporary nurse staffing needs to Allina’s not-for-profit network of 11 hospitals, 65 clinics and other health care services throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The partnership will leverage Nursefinders’ expertise as the nation’s leading provider of healthcare Vendor Management Services (VMS) and agency workforce solutions, to support Allina’s objective to create a system-wide approach to agency staffing that effectively manages costs while improving clinical and efficiency outcomes.

Dick Pettingill, president and CEO of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, commented, “We are pleased to announce that we have selected Nursefinders as our agency staffing management partner. Nursefinders will provide agency workforce solutions to support Allina’s current and ongoing care and efficiency goals while partnering with Allina to explore additional recruitment strategies for the future. This strategic partnership is key to our overall mission of providing exceptional care to our patients.”

Bob Livonius, CEO of Nursefinders, Inc., said, “We are excited about our partnership with Allina and are honoured to have been selected to support them in their mission. This partnership demonstrates Allina’s commitment to solving critical healthcare challenges, through collaborative efforts, like those caused by the growing shortage of nurses in our country. In our role as Allina’s agency staffing management partner, Nursefinders will oversee and streamline agency staffing processes on behalf of Allina and provide recruitment services to target nurse candiates interested in employment within the Allina network.”

Livonius said Nursefinders will leverage the partnerships it has built with a network of more than 120 local and national medical staffing agencies to improve the supply of agency nurse resources available to Allina. Through the use of Nursefinders proprietary software technology, unique recruitment processes, and dedicated clinical support, Nursefinders will partner with Allina to effectively improve efficiencies while assuring the quality of agency staff.

“This is an exciting new program for Allina,” said Chris Seitz, chief nursing officer for Allina Hospitals & Clinics. “We began the process of considering a staffing agency management solution several months ago. We established an internal workgroup made up of more than 20 managers representing various departments throughout all of the facilities in our system. The workgroup spent several months working diligently to define facility specific and system-wide needs, develop the parameters of the partnership, and to establish stringent selection criteria.”

Seitz continued, “After a comprehensive selection process we chose Nursefinders as the organization best positioned to achieve Allina’s goal of creating a system-wide approach to more effectively managing agency staffing from a clinical, efficiency and cost perspective. Nursefinders met or exceeded Allina’s selection standards and provided excellent references from other healthcare systems who utilize their workforce solutions to achieve similar goals and objectives.”

Sherry Weier, vice president of Workforce Solutions for Nursefinders, commented, “During the contracting process, Nursefinders workforce solutions consultants worked with Allina to conduct an in-depth analysis of their agency workforce costs to gain an accurate picture of past, current and future agency staffing trends. Based on the experience gained through similar workforce solutions partnerships with hundreds of hospitals, facilities and clinics across the country, we were able to analyze key data, share best practices and together with Allina, design comprehensive solutions and an organizational strategy to improve Allina’s overall agency workforce processes and efficiencies.”

According to Livonius, Nursefinders has spent the last four years developing and implementing flexible staffing workforce solutions for a large number of healthcare organizations.

“Our workforce solutions clients have come to depend on Nursefinders’ expertise and robust reporting capabilities to help them effectively monitor and manage the use of agency staff” said Livonius. “In turn, we are able to decrease agency workforce costs and provide a sufficient supply of nurses to provide quality care to patients and increase operating revenue. We look forward to delivering these same results to the Allina Hospitals & Clinics.”

About Allina

Allina Hospitals & Clinics is a not-for-profit system of hospitals, clinics and other health care services that work together to provide care throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina owns and operates 11 hospitals, 65 clinics, home care and hospice services, oxygen and equipment, pharmacies, and emergency medical transportation services. Allina Hospitals & Clinics and the latest health information can be found online at www.allina.com.