Clinical Acquisition Support Services (CLASS)
U.S. Department of the Air Force
The Problem
The Air Force Medical Service required full recruitment, credentialing, hiring, deploying, and management services for all health service labor categories, such as medical administration specialists, registered nurses, health care coordinators, and other IRMAC positions at various Air Force MTFs both within the continental US (CONUS) and overseas (OCONUS)
The Air Force Medical Service requires qualified Health Care Workers (HCWs) to provide direct patient care services in the treatment of military health system (MHS) beneficiaries inside Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs). These HCWs provide various services from treatment, patient movement, advice, clinical evaluations, recommendations, area and equipment preparation, and other clinical services to support existing staff.
The Solution
Our credentialing and security managers first provided validation of potential candidates’ (1) BLS certification for Healthcare Providers from the American Heart Association, (2) education, (3) work experience, (4) licenses, and (5) certifications and provided background checks.
The Impact
We were able to staff, manage, and retain 188 HCPs during the performance period, satisfying the requirements of 75 different labor categories and deploying staff to 41 different locations CONUS and OCONUS. In total, 105 total task orders were completed under the CLASS program, reflecting our commitment to customer success and satisfaction.
As task orders were awarded, we continued to onboard more recruiters and credentialing specialists, enabling our team to review and hire candidates in an exceptionally short time frame of 5 days. We also invested in automated toolsets that could mine resumes for vacancies, provide onboarding procedures, and track metrics and employee utilization, leading to a combined proprietary database of 20,000 viable resumes and a 100% fill rate in the entirety of the contract.
To hire and maintain these individuals, we budgeted high end salaries at the task order level and absorbed the loss of overbudgeted salaries to ensure that the customer had the highest quality HCPs. Additionally, a benefits manager was available 7 days a week to answer questions, file claims, and act as a liaison for insurance carriers.
Going beyond the basic checks, our hiring personnel evaluated candidate interest and ability to comply with military standards, DoD regulations, professional ethics, principles, and comfort in working in a military environment. These criteria ensured that only top talent was recruited.