What is BlueSky Medical Staffing Software?
BlueSky Medical Staffing is a comprehensive software platform designed specifically for healthcare organizations (primarily nursing) to efficiently manage their medical staffing needs. It is a cloud-based solution that can be accessed on desktop and mobile devices.
The software has a database to manage staff assignments as well as regulatory requirements around skills, licensing, work limits, and more. This helps maintain compliance and mitigate risks.
Other key features include ATS, bulk document uploads/downloads, shift and rate storage, billing calculations, and reporting.
Who is BlueSky Best Suited For?
BlueSky Medical Staffing Software seems best suited for:
- Healthcare nursing staffing agencies: BlueSky is purpose-built for the healthcare staffing industry, specifically nursing. It provides features tailored to the unique needs of agencies placing clinical staff, such as credential and compliance management, scheduling, and a VMS for managing contingent labor. Staffing firms can leverage BlueSky to streamline their healthcare placement operations.
- Hospitals and healthcare systems: The software was created through a joint venture between a 7-hospital system and a staffing agency. This means BlueSky intimately understands the needs of healthcare facilities when it comes to contingent staffing. Hospitals can use BlueSky's VMS platform to better manage agency staff and have greater visibility into fill rates, costs, and compliance.
- Organizations with high-volume clinical staffing needs like nursing: BlueSky is designed to handle the complexity that comes with large-scale healthcare staff management. Its automation capabilities around candidate matching, scheduling, and credential management make it well-equipped to handle high-volume staffing scenarios efficiently.
- Companies looking to grow their healthcare staffing business: BlueSky provides a competitive advantage for staffing firms to compete for hospital contracts. The VMS portal and granular reporting capabilities seem geared towards helping staffing agencies better serve healthcare clients and expand their book of business in this niche.
Signs You Need to Look for an Alternative to BlueSky
While BlueSky Medical Staffing Software may be suitable for nursing staff management, organizations dealing with physician and Advanced Practice Provider (APP) staffing face unique challenges that may require more specialized solutions. These include complex credentialing and privileging processes, intricate scheduling needs including on-call rotations, subspecialty matching, varied compensation models, CME tracking, specific performance metrics, etc.
If your organization manages doctors or APPs and finds that BlueSky lacks the necessary features to handle these complexities effectively, it may be time to explore alternative software options that cater specifically to physician and APP workforce management.
Not built for Physicians and APPs
BlueSky Medical Staffing Software, originally designed with nursing staff in mind, falls short when addressing the intricate demands of physician and Advanced Practice Provider (APP) management. Its nursing-centric foundation means it lacks crucial features for handling the complexities inherent in physician and APP scheduling and compensation.
For instance, it may struggle with accommodating the varied shift patterns of doctors, including extended on-call periods, academic responsibilities, and cross-specialty coverage. The software's rate management system likely doesn't account for the nuanced compensation models common among physicians and APPs, such as RVU-based pay, tiered call rates, or performance bonuses tied to quality metrics.
Performance Issues
If you've experienced slowness, glitches, crashes, or excessive downtime with BlueSky, it can lead to several problems. Recruiter productivity may decrease due to system lag and interrupted workflows. End users may become frustrated and avoid the system, resulting in incomplete data. Additionally, you may face potential delays in filling critical shifts or roles due to unreliable software.
Lack of Customization
If BlueSky doesn't provide enough customization options to meet your specific clinical staffing needs, you may encounter several issues. There could be a mismatch between the software's capabilities and your unique requirements. You might need to create manual workarounds outside the system to handle missing functionality. Additionally, configuring BlueSky to align with your organization's staffing processes might be difficult.
Outdated User Interface
If you find BlueSky's interface clunky and outdated compared to more modern staffing solutions, several issues may arise. New users may face a steeper learning curve trying to navigate the non-intuitive system. This can lead to reduced user adoption and incomplete data entry due to poor usability. Additionally, the outdated appearance of your staffing software could negatively impact your employer brand.
Inadequate Compliance Features
If BlueSky's compliance management capabilities are insufficient for your healthcare staffing needs, you could face increased risk of placing non-compliant staff due to gaps in tracking compliance requirements, more manual effort required to verify staff credentials, licenses, tests, documents, etc., and potential regulatory violations and fines if an audit uncovers staff compliance issues.
When you need a scheduler
Bluesky allows for storing shifts and adding them manually but lacks a full scheduler interface for building robust and complex schedules.
Lacking collaboration and automation features
While BlueSky Medical Staffing Software provides basic data storage and organization capabilities, its one major drawback is the lack of intelligent automation for repetitive tasks. For instance, users often find themselves manually entering rate information for each new shift, even when dealing with recurring schedules or standard rates. This repetitive data entry not only consumes valuable time but also increases the risk of human error in critical financial calculations.
BlueSky's task management capabilities are also inadequate for the complex workflows typical in healthcare staffing. The software lacks robust features for assigning and tracking tasks among team members, making it difficult to ensure accountability and efficient workflow management. Without clear task assignment and progress tracking, important staffing processes may fall through the cracks or face unnecessary delays.
Why Kimedics is a Great Alternative to BlueSky?
While BlueSky offers a range of capabilities for healthcare staffing, the mixed reviews suggest it may not be the ideal fit for every organization. Users have reported issues with outdated interfaces, system instability, and inconsistent support that can hinder productivity and satisfaction.
Fortunately, there are alternative solutions on the market designed to address these shortcomings. One standout option is Kimedics, a workforce relationship management platform purpose-built for healthcare staffing and differentiated by its:
- Intuitive user interface: Kimedics has a modern, user-friendly interface. The intuitive design makes it easy for users to navigate the system, access information, and complete tasks efficiently. This saves time on training and increases user adoption.
- Reliable performance: Kimedics is known for its speed and stability. Users can count on the system to be consistently available and responsive when they need it. Reliable software performance is critical for staffing agencies and healthcare organizations managing shift coverage.
- Responsive customer support: Kimedics is recognized for its excellent customer service. The support team is extremely responsive and helpful, treating even minor issues as a high priority. Users feel confident knowing they have access to knowledgeable assistance whenever needed.
- Built with automation and collaboration: With Kimedics, you'll boost efficiency, reduce errors, and free up your staff to focus on what really matters - delivering exceptional patient care and building stronger workforce relationships. It slashes admin time by automating scheduling, payroll, and documentation processes. Teams stay connected through integrated task management and real-time updates, breaking down silos between departments.
Additionally, Kimedics offers:
- End-to-end functionality with connected data across modules
- Portals for clients, vendors, clinicians, and internal collaboration
- Open shift broadcasting to fill staffing gaps faster
- A mobile app for on-the-go access
- Advanced analytics for optimizing operations
- Credential management to maintain compliance
Built specifically for healthcare staffing, Kimedics provides an intuitive, high-performing, and well-supported alternative to BlueSky. Its comprehensive feature set and commitment to customer success make it an ideal choice for agencies and facilities looking to streamline workforce management.
Kimedics can help your health organization manage its workforce while reducing labor costs and improving patient care. To know more, schedule a personalized demo here.
