Dental Staffing Agencies Can Serve Your Office For A Day, A Month, Or Until You Move To Full Hire
There comes a time in every practice’s life when having a temporary addition to their dental staff would be convenient and beneficial. Your entire practice can suffer when your dental assistant, receptionist, or even hygienist calls out sick for the day. Dental staffing agencies can be a great solution to this concern and give you the ability to fill that need for as long as necessary. Unfortunately, not all Dental Staffing Agencies are equal, and when the time comes, it will be necessary to ensure you’re working with a reputable company that only hires qualified staff.
What Are The Benefits of Using a Dental Staffing Agency?
Whether you have staff out for a day or you’re entering into your busy season and need help for a few weeks or months, you’ll be able to fill that need with a single phone call. It’s not uncommon for dental practices to use the same temp staff year after year when the need calls and many temp staff prefer the transitive nature of their position for the experience and variety it provides.
A reputable dental staffing agency will do all the background checks for you, ensuring that the temps they send to your location are qualified and have the necessary experience. The time they put in screening their temps will ensure that the one that arrives will be able to fit seamlessly into the day’s workflow and serve to solve problems rather than cause more.
If you’ve found, you’ve had a great experience with a member of your temp staffing team and think they’ll be a great addition to your permanent team; dental staffing agencies make it easy. While they’re on staff with you, you won’t be liable for the results of any of the occupational hazards that can happen to work in dentistry. Reputable dental staffing agencies cover concerns like these and protect their clients from liability.
With the ability to call in temp help when you need it, you’ll never find yourself foisting administrative work off on employees who should be spending their time working with patients. When taken out of their accustomed role, this can lead to resentment and a loss of morale for your team. Hiring a temporary administrative assistant avoids this and ensures an expert has it all in hand.
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What To Watch For When Assessing A Dental Staffing Agency For Your Office
Dental staffing agencies may be a great solution for a dental office finding itself short-handed, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come with their share of concerns. One of the first is the expense involved. While they take a lot off your hands, they tend to introduce a pretty stiff markup. The temp staff you hire may only be receiving half of what you’re paying to the agency, and that can result in pretty high rates per hour for you. The drastic difference in rate can result in less motivated temp staff then the wage you’re paying may suggest they should be.
We mentioned that permanent placement is an option and one of the best things about using a temp agency. Being able to test run a staff member and see how they fit into your office is invaluable and saves everyone involved a great deal of money and time. When you’re ready to hire them on full time is not the time to discover that doing so comes with a stiff placement fee from the agency.
While reputable agencies do their background work to determine the qualifications of their temp staff, there are agencies that aren’t as diligent as they should be. As a result, there’s always a bit of a gamble when receiving a new staffer from these companies, especially if you’re one of the new clients for the agency. They aren’t necessarily going to send their best and brightest to a client that’s just started using their agency. Studies have shown that temp staffing can present certain risks to the health and safety of patients if improperly screened.
With these pros and cons in mind, selecting a dental staffing agency is an important decision for your practice. Not having the ability to pull in additional help when you need it ties your hands when your staff member calls out or you encounter a period of increased traffic in your office. We did the groundwork to determine which agencies others in the industry are leaning on. We have found some of the top dental staffing agencies that maintain a high success rate among the dental communities.
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Comparison Table 1: Comparison of Numeric Data
| Healthcare Staffing Service | BBB Rating | Company Type | Founded | Company Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barton & Associates | A+ | Privately held | 2001 | 500-1000 employees |
| Staff Care® | C+ | Public company | 1991 | 200-500 employees |
| Cloud Dentistry | N/A | Privately held | 2014 | 1-10 employees |
| CompHealth | NR | Privately held | 1979 | 1000-5000 employees |
| Jackson & Coker | A+ | Privately held | 1978 | 200-500 employees |
1. Barton Associates, Inc.
Company type: Privately held
Founded: 2001
Company size: 500-1000 employees
BBB Rating: A+, BBB Accredited
Barton & Associates maintains a leading firm in hospitals and practices’ staffing and recruitment industry. Barton & Associates recruiters and managers reach out daily to new physicians and healthcare facilities to provide skilled locum tenens with the right practice, exclusively focusing on the service of their clients. By providing resources, including networks and staffing centers, to share insights, recruit experienced professionals, and bring productivity and focus back into the healthcare industry.
2. Staff Care®
Company size: 200-500 employees
Company type: Public Company
Founded: 1991
BBB Ratings: C+, Not BBB Accredited
Staff Care centers its mission around finding the best locum tenens talent available and outsourcing those people to facilities and practices in need. Staff Care recruits locum tenens from multiple industries, background checking their qualifications and specialties to match them with specialty physicians, nurses, dentists, and assistants who need staff engagement and facility requirements. Their cost-recovery services help recover lost revenue for facilities, and their outsourcing services help represent their clients’ interests throughout the hiring process.
3. Cloud Dentistry
Company Size: 1-10 employees
Founded: 2014
Company Type: Privately Held
BBB Rating: N/A
Cloud Dentistry, a small private business with a unique image, takes the process of locum tenens staffing and turns it into an online booking service that’s easy and accessible for dentists. Cloud Dentistry works with simple pricing, doesn’t add placement fees, and showcases locum tenens through a peer-review system that’s background checked and verified by the company’s staff members. For dentists needing a temporary staff member quickly, their online booking process only takes a few minutes to complete, making the hiring process a simple, straightforward, on-demand and unlimited procedure.
4. CompHealth
Company type: Privately Held
Company size: 1000-5000 Employees
Founded: 1979
BBB Ratings: NR, Not BBB Accredited
CompHealth delivers personalized medical staffing to facilities across the United States, investing in trained recruiters that hold in more than 70 healthcare professions. By promoting locum tenens across their platform, healthcare providers and practices gain access to a nationwide network of resources and locum tenens applications for temporary and permanent staffing. Each manager works exclusively with locum tenens to manage candidate searches, expand reach with access to career sites, and acts as a support team to aid in the employment process. For practices, their extensive background checks and outreach make CompHealth, a reliable candidate for employment opportunities.
5. Jackson & Coker
Company type: Privately Held
Company size: 200-500 employees
Founded: 1978
BBB Ratings: A+, Not BBB Accredited
Jackson & Coker connects providers with locum tenens through telehealth solutions, expanding existing platforms with telehealth implementations that staff your practice with physicians that can meet provider capacity challenges with expertise. By expanding in the telehealth and locum tenens staffing, Jackson & Coker aims to provide healthcare access to all patients and place thousands of providers in jobs across the United States. Recognized for their excellence and transparency, Jackson & Coker practices open communication and support that fosters healthier care.
Comparison Table 2: Comparison of Important Features
| Healthcare Staffing Service | Recruitment Type | Industries Recruited | Hiring Process | Telehealth Solutions | Additional Services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barton & Associates | Staffing and Recruitment | Hospitals and Practices | Provides skilled locum tenens with the right practice, focuses on the service of their clients | No | Resources and Staffing Centers |
| Staff Care® | Staff Outsourcing and Cost-Recovery | Multiple industries | Recruits locum tenens from multiple industries, matches with specialty physicians, recovers lost revenue | No | Staff Engagement Services |
| Cloud Dentistry | Online Booking Service | Dentistry | Peer-reviewed locum tenens, easy online booking process, no placement fees | No | Unlimited On-Demand Hiring |
| CompHealth | Medical Staffing | More than 70 healthcare professions | Provides access to a nationwide network of resources and locum tenens applications | No | Candidate Search Support |
| Jackson & Coker | Telehealth and Locum Tenens Staffing | Healthcare providers | Connects providers with telehealth solutions, fosters open communication and support | Yes | Placement and Support Team |
