10 Essential Questions To Ask When Sourcing Healthcare Managed Service Providers

When lives are at stake each day, your healthcare facility doesn’t have time to waste on day-to-day operations.

Does your healthcare managed service provider make tasks like staffing, timekeeping, and billing a breeze? Or are you counting the days until your service contract ends?

An effective MSP sees you as a partner — understanding your business needs, challenges, and goals.

Sourcing the right healthcare MSP involves more than comparing a list of services and going with the provider with the lowest cost.

Let these 11 essential questions to ask your MSP assist you in choosing the best healthcare managed service provider for your healthcare facility. 

Table of Contents

• How Do You Choose the Best Healthcare MSP for Your Facility?
• 10 Questions To Ask Your MSP Before You Commit 
• Trusted Managed Services Offers Customizable and Comprehensive Staffing Solutions

How Do You Choose the Best Healthcare MSP for Your Facility?

No two healthcare facilities are the same. 

While a standard solution MSP may work for one, the copy-paste approach may not work for you.

A good MSP should cover the extensive needs of your facility with key features like:

• Web-based technology that integrates seamlessly with your existing software
• Customizable reporting with 24/7 access to real-time data surrounding your contingent workforce
• Technology that automates tasks and streamlines processes in one easy-to-use system
• A top-quality vendor management service (VMS)

Every facility has a distinct set of contingent staffing labor challenges.

At Trusted Managed Services, we offer a customizable, comprehensive healthcare staffing solution. We deliver the tools you need to run with optimal efficiency and cost savings.

Request a demo and learn more.

10 Questions To Ask Your MSP Before You Commit

Sourcing the best MSP for your facility can promote growth by increasing:

• Efficiency
• Optimization; and
• Cost savings

However, choosing the wrong MSP can waste your facility’s time and money.

Want to determine if an MSP will be right for you?

Don’t forget these 11 questions to ask managed service providers.

#1: What Services Do You Specialize In?

It may seem straightforward, but the clearer you are about the services you need and the services a company specializes in, the better you can determine if the MSP is right for you.

A good MSP will offer services to help healthcare facilities streamline:

• Recruitment
• Onboarding; and 
• Retention

By automating and managing tasks such as compliance outsourcing, timekeeping, and reporting, your MSP partner can relieve your staff of time-consuming tasks.

Review the services the MSP provides and where they feel they stand out from the competition.

Remember you’re hiring them, so take all the time necessary to be sure the MSP can match your company’s needs.

#2: How Many Vendors Are in Your MSP Program?

According to the United States (U.S.) Bureau of Labor Statistics, while current nurses retire or change professions, about 203,200 openings for registered nurses are projected each year over the decade.

So when you have an opening to fill, you need to reach as many qualified candidates as possible.

A healthcare MSP can make it easier for your hospital to gain quick access to high-quality talent.

The more vendors your MSP has in its program, the bigger the talent pool of healthcare professionals they will have access to. 

As healthcare staffing shortages continue, Trusted Managed Services works with a wide variety of staffing vendors — ensuring a bigger talent pool to help you find the right candidate faster.

#3: Is Your MSP Vendor-Neutral?

A vendor-neutral MSP has no links to any staffing firms.

A level playing field for recruits means there’s no conflict of interest — and your MSP can recommend suppliers based on strength and core competencies as opposed to relationships.

Neutral MSPs employ their VMS tool to drive maximum savings and ensure the process is:

• Customized to the client’s needs
• Automated; and
• Completely transparent

The Trusted Managed Services vendor management service is vendor-neutral and non-exclusive. You can still work with your current vendors while partnering with us because we believe facilities should have options and maintain a diverse portfolio of suppliers.

Only a vendor-neutral MSP like Trusted Managed Services can strive to place the best candidate and put your facility’s best interest first.

#4: How Much Does Your MSP Cost?

Not all MSPs are completely free, so it’s important to ask upfront about the price.

Many MSPs charge fees for add-ons like implementation and onboarding services.

So you want to ask about all fees you might face and be aware of all possible expenses before making your decision. 

When you partner with an MSP like Trusted Managed Services, you get the luxury of managing your staffing, billing, time tracking, and more all in one place –– at absolutely no cost to you. 

All our fees are covered by participating staffing vendors, who typically pay an additional 5% of normal billing rates.

#5: Can Your MSP Integrate With Current Existing Software Programs?

A healthcare MSP should automate time-consuming tasks to increase your current program’s: 

• Accountability
• Efficiency; and 
• Value 

Be sure to ask about software integration — especially if you already employ an electronic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, Human Resources Information System (HRIS), or various other third-party systems like Kronos.

Your MSP should offer solutions that integrate seamlessly with your existing systems. This ensures that your timekeeping and staffing processes are fully integrated and streamlined. 

#6: Will We Have a Point of Contact?

Top-notch customer service should be top-of-mind.

You want to have the benefit of a workforce consultant from your MSP to advise on labor trends and custom solutions that will work within your healthcare facility.

Add in a dedicated representative assigned to each key program area within the MSP system, and you will always have an expert to turn to with questions.  

#7: Do You Offer On-Site Hours?

Do you prefer in-person support?

If so, it may be a priority that your managed service provider offers on-site services.

Ask when the on-site support is offered to be sure you won’t need to come in during your time off to take advantage of the face-to-face assistance.

With Trusted Managed Services, you will have a dedicated account manager who will provide on-site support as part of our MSP service. 

Your account manager is there to advise on recruiting and assist with reporting and billing. 

Best of all, this service is completely free of charge.

#8: What Kind of Job Openings Do You Support?

A good MSP should offer a portfolio of flexible staffing options, including:

• Nurses
• Allied healthcare technicians
• Physicians
• Advanced practice providers; and 
• Nonclinical staff

As the needs of your organization change, your MSP partner can provide custom-built solutions, the personalized service you deserve.

At Trusted Managed Services, we understand your workforce needs may extend beyond clinical staff. That’s why we provide nursing and allied professional staffing options, so you always have access to a diverse inventory of workers.

#9: What Is Your Response Time for Urgent Issues?

Your facility must stay up and running 24/7, even when you’re not. Trusted Managed Services MSP offers sophisticated reporting 24/7. You have access to real time data surrounding your contingent workforce.

Lengthy downtimes or delays on urgent issues can cost your facility money. 

Find out how long it takes the MSP to respond to issues and check their availability — not just during business hours, but also:

• Late at night
• On the weekends; and 
• On holidays  

#10: What Type of Reporting Do You Offer?

Does the MSP’s reporting system support transparency and visibility?

Some MSPs only offer standard reports that don’t allow customization and format flexibility to suit your facility’s specific reporting preferences.

Is it important to you to have access to real-time data that can be accessed at any time?

Trusted Managed Services MSP offers 24/7 access to valuable analytics in real-time — allowing you to generate and send customizable reports to your team regularly if so desired.

Detailed reports, workforce analytics, and insights empower you to make more informed contingent labor decisions.

Trusted Managed Services Offers Customizable and Comprehensive Staffing Solutions

Choosing the perfect healthcare managed service provider is a crucial decision for every healthcare facility.

Asking the right questions can help you find the MSP that covers all your staffing needs.

At Trusted Managed Services, we understand your unique challenges of:

• Workforce
• Time tracking
• Accounting; and
• Reporting

 A standard solution simply won’t do. 

We offer a comprehensive, customizable healthcare staffing solution that allows you to realize cost savings and process efficiencies across your contingent workforce utilization.

By providing a reliable and fully-managed source of pro-tem healthcare professionals, Trusted Managed Services can alleviate the workload for your staff, allowing them to focus more on their tasks without experiencing burnout.

Trusted Managed Services takes the burden of managing your company’s staffing, billing, time tracking, and more by consolidating it into one easy-to-use, single point of contact MSP — all at no cost to you.

Request your demo today.