The Situation

When a large healthcare system in the Midwest needed emergency holiday coverage for one of their facilities during the busiest time of the year, they sent an urgent needs request out through their Vendor Management System. This facility had already been working with several of our competitors, but now had significant gaps in their holiday coverage due to providers cancelling their assignments without notice or not working the number of shifts that they had originally agreed to cover. When MPLT Healthcare saw the request come out, we knew that we could jump in and assist our client with this dire need. As a premier and trusted resource for healthcare systems and professionals nationwide, we were committed to doing whatever was necessary to ensure that this facility would be able to continue to provide life-changing services to the community that they serve.

The Solution

The client’s initial job order came in for emergency holiday coverage in the plastic surgery department, where the services provided would be extremely delicate and time sensitive, such as handling reconstructive surgeries and burn cases. Our Surgery team has extensive experience filling these types of needs. We understood the urgency behind this request and worked diligently to present the client with several highly qualified surgeons with availability over the holidays.

Thanks to our swift assistance, the client was able to have the plastic surgery specialists they needed in the timeframe required, saving them from having to divert patients to neighboring facilities. Once the client saw how quickly we could turn around quality providers, even during such a busy time of the year, they started counting on us to fill additional locum needs. We received nine additional job orders over the course of the next five months for multiple facilities within in the healthcare system. These needs were across several specialties to include plastic reconstructive surgeons, trauma surgeons, burn surgeons, general surgeons, and critical care intensivists.

In order to handle such a high volume of needs, our team of Credentialing Specialists became subject matter experts in this healthcare system’s onboarding process. Our Specialists became an extension of the facilities’ Medical Staff offices, giving us the ability to assist them with timely and efficient completion of hospital privileging and provider enrollment. We were also able to leverage our strong relationships with the State Medical Licensing Board in order to expedite licensure for 15 providers to support the client’s needs.

As a result of our ability to deliver on our promises, as well as our talent for acquiring quality providers within short timeframes, we were able to build a solid partnership with our client founded on trust. Our locum physicians also worked tirelessly to build rapport with the doctors in the community, earning their confidence, trust and respect. When we began working with this client, they sent all of their coverage needs out through a Vendor Management System (VMS). Our relationship with the client became so strong that they stopped utilizing the VMS to send their job orders out to multiple agencies and instead started coming to us directly as their vendor of choice.

The MPLT Way

Since filling that original job order in December of 2017, our relationship with the client has grown, as have the critical surgical services that we were able to provide. We now cover 100% of the client’s plastic surgery schedule and we have filled 70% of the client’s burn center coverage since early 2018, while also providing coverage for their trauma center. As of fall 2019, we have credentialed 31 providers, filled shifts across five specialties, and have obtained 15 licenses for providers in the client’s state. Many of these providers have been utilized on an on-going basis or have been called back for further coverage, allowing us to become a long term solution for the client.

It is always our mission to go above and beyond in service to our clients and this case was no different. We made it a priority to provide our client with physicians who could hit the ground running and take a vested interest in their community. We are pleased that our partnership with this client has been able to bring so much value to these critical access facilities and the patients that they serve.

Client Background

The client is a healthcare system located in the Midwest that supports over 100 access points in its network including several hospitals. The client’s experienced team consists of nearly 8000 employees and medical staff members who work to serve a wide variety of communities throughout the network. This client’s facilities have earned numerous accreditations and awards.