The Exchanges

Q So how did you start to position your, your company and your business to meet that demand?

A So there were a few things that we did. Uh, we, we, a few months ago, we launched what we call the pandemic hiring suite, right? And what that is, is a range of features and tools that even more dramatically accelerates the hiring, um, and really helps the hospitals reduce costs because they had gone through some very severe financial hardship, right? So, uh, a couple of the things that we did was we added in automated interview scheduling, remote interviewing, because that's just what you have to do during a pandemic, um, in app chat, um, You know, enhanced our matching algorithms. All of these with a goal of accelerating the hiring even further, so we got it down to 12 days now, and on average we save every hospital that we work with at least two million dollars because they dramatically try to reduce their travel nurse costs as well as their overtime and HR costs.

AI assessment note: “we launched what we call the pandemic hiring suite”

Q of self-sufficient. But what about the rest of the team? I mean, you are the CEO of the company, and, you know, even the best of employees are, it's a challenge this year, right? So there are lots of challenges that people are dealing with, whether it's family issues or just, you know, loneliness and isolation, morale. How are you How have you been handling those challenges with your team?

A You're right. I mean, it's, it's been a very challenging year, um, mentally, right? Uh, we had done a quick survey of our team, and it was, like, 50% were experiencing some kind of symptoms of anxiety or depression, and I think that's pretty common across the board, across the country. Um, so there were a few things that we did. So the first thing is just in the acknowledgement and communication of the problem. Everything from just, like, hey, like, we understand everyone's going through a tough time right now, and just saying that explicitly and saying that we understand, and then also for certain groups of employees, like, You know, the parents with the young kids, right? Or the, the person in an apartment with three other roommates. I mean, they were under even additional strain. Um, and, and saying that, hey, it's okay if we're on a Zoom call that you're, you know, your kid shows up, right? That's perfectly acceptable. The second thing we did is just really invest more time on just improving the setup, right? So, uh, everyone got a work from home, like, stipend to set up their office space at home. Um, For some employees, they did have to, like, scale back a little bit in terms of their hours and switch from full-time to part-time, which is completely understandable. And then the third major thing that we did is just kind of dramatically improve our communication and our in…

AI assessment note: “there were a few things that we did. So the first thing is”

Q So how did you start to position your, your company and your business to meet that demand?

A So there were a few things that we did. Uh, we, we, a few months ago, we launched what we call the pandemic hiring suite, right? And what that is, is a range of features and tools that even more dramatically accelerates the hiring, um, and really helps the hospitals reduce costs because they had gone through some very severe financial hardship, right? So, uh, a couple of the things that we did was we added in automated interview scheduling, remote interviewing, because that's just what you have to do during a pandemic, um, in app chat, um, You know, enhanced our matching algorithms. All of these with a goal of accelerating the hiring even further, so we got it down to 12 days now, and on average we save every hospital that we work with at least two million dollars because they dramatically try to reduce their travel nurse costs as well as their overtime and HR costs.

AI assessment note: “we launched what we call the pandemic hiring suite”

Q of self-sufficient. But what about the rest of the team? I mean, you are the CEO of the company, and, you know, even the best of employees are, it's a challenge this year, right? So there are lots of challenges that people are dealing with, whether it's family issues or just, you know, loneliness and isolation, morale. How are you How have you been handling those challenges with your team?

A You're right. I mean, it's, it's been a very challenging year, um, mentally, right? Uh, we had done a quick survey of our team, and it was, like, 50% were experiencing some kind of symptoms of anxiety or depression, and I think that's pretty common across the board, across the country. Um, so there were a few things that we did. So the first thing is just in the acknowledgement and communication of the problem. Everything from just, like, hey, like, we understand everyone's going through a tough time right now, and just saying that explicitly and saying that we understand, and then also for certain groups of employees, like, You know, the parents with the young kids, right? Or the, the person in an apartment with three other roommates. I mean, they were under even additional strain. Um, and, and saying that, hey, it's okay if we're on a Zoom call that you're, you know, your kid shows up, right? That's perfectly acceptable. The second thing we did is just really invest more time on just improving the setup, right? So, uh, everyone got a work from home, like, stipend to set up their office space at home. Um, For some employees, they did have to, like, scale back a little bit in terms of their hours and switch from full-time to part-time, which is completely understandable. And then the third major thing that we did is just kind of dramatically improve our communication and our in…

AI assessment note: “there were a few things that we did. So the first thing is”

Q just out of safety a couple months ago. Um, you know, the doctor that I used to go see, she, uh, was just a remote call. And as you know, CMS is now reimbursing doctors for consultations with Medicare patients, which is a new feature this year. Um, do you think telemedicine now is here to stay and will actually be the Predominant form of medical care in the future?

A I think it is here to stay. At the end of the day, the health healthcare industry as a whole needs to really focus on customer service, which is like basically the patient experience or, you know, many phrases for that. And if patients are adopting telemedicine, And you're going to get reimbursed for it, like, as you just described, then there is no reason why it would not be fully adopted. Now there's a few, you know, areas that need to get figured out. Uh, you know, there are entire communities in the US that don't have access to these devices and don't have internet access and so on. So it's not a solution for everyone in every single location and every person. Um, but the adoption of it, the dramatic adoption of it is here to stay.

AI assessment note: “I think it is here to stay.”

Q don't know what those mean, but you do. Pass with fine colors. Um, and apparently we're getting a lot of nurses responding to that comment on Facebook or saying, yeah, same experience. First of all, do you think that is a common experience? And then the second question I would have is if there's a shortage in nurses now, wouldn't hospitals want to hire somebody like Patty at age 63?

A Yeah, so unfortunately it is a common experience. Not only, um, do older nurses get hired less, even if you took a gap from the workforce, right, like you had to raise your kids or, you know, you just have to take a few years off, that also reduces your hiring, you know, chances and opportunities. And you're right, that is really unfortunate because, like, there is a dramatic shortage, and we need, we need every able-bodied we can get. You know, a lot of that has to do with just the existing I don't know, bias, right, that just exists among employers today. And that's across all industries, not just healthcare. And so this is one of the, a really important topic because it's something that we track really carefully. Because we're a software platform, we have so much data on this. Like, I'll give you another example of a human bias that's been introduced, or that we noticed. We noticed that nurses that lived further away from a facility, Uh, were less likely to get interview requests on the platform, even though they wanted to, you know, live in wherever it was, LA or Dallas or whatever it was. And, uh, what we did is we just removed the current location of the nurse, right? And we just saw that human bias just removed. It was gone. You know, hiring in general, you know, we, we, there's a lot of preconceived notions and biases and so on that just have to constantly be addressed,…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, so unfortunately it is a common experience. Not only, um, do older nurses get hired less”

Q just out of safety a couple months ago. Um, you know, the doctor that I used to go see, she, uh, was just a remote call. And as you know, CMS is now reimbursing doctors for consultations with Medicare patients, which is a new feature this year. Um, do you think telemedicine now is here to stay and will actually be the Predominant form of medical care in the future?

A I think it is here to stay. At the end of the day, the health healthcare industry as a whole needs to really focus on customer service, which is like basically the patient experience or, you know, many phrases for that. And if patients are adopting telemedicine, And you're going to get reimbursed for it, like, as you just described, then there is no reason why it would not be fully adopted. Now there's a few, you know, areas that need to get figured out. Uh, you know, there are entire communities in the US that don't have access to these devices and don't have internet access and so on. So it's not a solution for everyone in every single location and every person. Um, but the adoption of it, the dramatic adoption of it is here to stay.

AI assessment note: “I think it is here to stay. At the end of the day”

Q don't know what those mean, but you do. Pass with fine colors. Um, and apparently we're getting a lot of nurses responding to that comment on Facebook or saying, yeah, same experience. First of all, do you think that is a common experience? And then the second question I would have is if there's a shortage in nurses now, wouldn't hospitals want to hire somebody like Patty at age 63?

A Yeah, so unfortunately it is a common experience. Not only, um, do older nurses get hired less, even if you took a gap from the workforce, right, like you had to raise your kids or, you know, you just have to take a few years off, that also reduces your hiring, you know, chances and opportunities. And you're right, that is really unfortunate because, like, there is a dramatic shortage, and we need, we need every able-bodied we can get. You know, a lot of that has to do with just the existing I don't know, bias, right, that just exists among employers today. And that's across all industries, not just healthcare. And so this is one of the, a really important topic because it's something that we track really carefully. Because we're a software platform, we have so much data on this. Like, I'll give you another example of a human bias that's been introduced, or that we noticed. We noticed that nurses that lived further away from a facility, Uh, were less likely to get interview requests on the platform, even though they wanted to, you know, live in wherever it was, LA or Dallas or whatever it was. And, uh, what we did is we just removed the current location of the nurse, right? And we just saw that human bias just removed. It was gone. You know, hiring in general, you know, we, we, there's a lot of preconceived notions and biases and so on that just have to constantly be addressed,…

AI assessment note: “unfortunately it is a common experience. Not only, um, do older nurses get hired less”