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Healthcare Traveler – February, 2010
Choosing a reputable agency
with assignments in desirable locations. But it’s next to impossible to determine the quality, reputation, and ethics of a company by having a phone conversation or looking at a Web site.
So with hundreds of firms vying for your attention, how do you choose a reputable agency, and one that’s right for you? The companies you work with should demonstrate that they are operationally sound, ethical in their business dealings, and concerned with clinical quality. Some indicators that ref lect these things include membership in the National Association of Travel Healthcare Organizations (NATHO) and certification by The Joint Commission. While neither of these is necessarily required for a staffing company to provide high-quality services, NATHO and The Joint Commission are intended to provide assurances about the way staffing companies work. These designations combined should give you confidencethat you will be working with a highly regarded staffing agency
NATHO membership
Founded in 2008, NATHO represents nearly 50 travel healthcare staffing agencies. Collectively, these firms account for more than 80 percent of the total nonphysician travel healthcare market. NATHO member firms agree to adhere to a strict code of ethics and standards of practice and procedures. For you, this ensures that you are paid in a timely manner, you are covered by professional liability and workers’ compensation insurance, your agency will go to bat for you if issues arise while you are on assignment, and they won’t behave unprofessionally by, for example, submitting your résumé or CV to a hospital without your permission or expecting you to work without a contract.
One important standard that NATHO member firms adhere to is compliance with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations in terms of pay and benef its. This may not sound very exciting, but it’s essential that traveling healthcare professionals under s tand their tax status. I recently spoke with a nurse who had worked with an agency that operated in the “gray zone” in offering purportedly tax-free benefits. Upon being audited by the IRS, the nurse ended up owing tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes and penalties. She was beyond upset. I felt bad for her, but I could offer little comfort. Be cautious if you think the pay/benefit package sounds too good to be true, particularly from a tax standpoint. It may very well come back to bite you.
Joint Commission certification
The Joint Commission (formerly known as JCAHO) has been surveying and granting accreditation to hospitals and other healthcare organizations for decades. One of its newest offerings is the Health Care Staffing Services Certification. Here at NATHO, we could not be more pleased to have this designation available to our member firms. The Joint Commission’s seal of approval means a firm takes screening, credentialing, quality of care, patient safety, and risk management very seriously. While the requirements are rigorous, a reputable staffing company should not have trouble securing this certification. If a firm does not boast Joint Commission certification, ask why, and proceed with caution.
As a condition of membership, NATHO firms must be accredited by The Joint Commission. Agencies that take the steps necessary to hold these two designations tend to have outstanding reputations. Hospitals that want to contract with the best traveling professionals to take care of their patients gravitate toward NATHO/Joint Commission-approved agencies. For you, this means that by using these two guiding criteria, you’ll be working with hospitals that take quality and professionalism seriously.
For more information on these important designations, visit the NATHO Web site (natho.org) and The Joint Commission Web site (jointcommisssion. org—“choose Certification Programs” from the top menu). Now that you know what to look for, deciding which agencies are right for you should be a much simpler task.
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