Acadia Healthcare + HWL
Standardizing Locums Process and Contracts for Time Savings and Transparency
About Acadia Healthcare
With more than 18,000 beds throughout 40 states, Acadia Healthcare provides behavioral health and addiction treatment services to patients in various settings, from inpatient psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment centers to outpatient clinics and therapeutic school-based programs.
The Situation
When Ron Mays signed on to be the interim CEO of Riverwood Behavioral Hospital and Desert Hills Behavioral Hospital, he didn’t expect “sourcing locums” to be part of the job description. However, that’s precisely how he spent a lot of time. The facilities’ physician recruiters focus on hiring full-time staff. Still, it fell to him to find temporary replacements for providers taking time off or to fill in while the facility looked for someone permanent. As the CEO, he had the authority to negotiate rates and contracts with locum agencies. So, that’s what he did–at his discretion and without direction from the operating company, Acadia Healthcare.
Was Mays paying a competitive market rate for locums? How did his spending compare to that of other facilities? Were the contracts he signed putting his facilities (and Acadia) at risk? He really couldn’t say–and neither could the Acadia corporate office. They had no process to track the locum activities of Acadia’s 586 facilities.
Behavioral health providers are consistently one of the most in-demand locum specialties nationwide. So, it’s no surprise that managing locum tenens was an ongoing task for CEOs throughout Acadia’s network. Each facility worked with only a few locum agencies individually. As a result, the contract terms varied by agency, the rates they paid were not always competitive, the time to fill could have been better, and candidate screening questions needed to be more consistent. Without consolidation, the individual facilities couldn’t leverage overall spending to negotiate better contracts.
As the Acadia network continued to grow, the lack of process for locum staffing became increasingly problematic–and costly. Locum providers were a multi-million-dollar expense for Acadia, yet they had no structure or process to manage it.
Key Challenges
Persistent need to find temporary behavioral health specialists at the individual facilities
Facilities unable to leverage the power of corporate spend in dealing with local and regional locum vendors
Without standard contracts, rates, and candidate pre- screening, facilities were taking on unnecessary risk, paying too much for locums, and accepting locum providers who may not meet corporate standards
“Healthcare Workforce Logistics simplified the locum recruitment process through their online system. It allows us to efficiently fill open locum requisitions with high-quality, pre-screened candidates.”
Ron Mays, Interim CEO, Riverwoods Behavioral Hospital and Desert Hills Behavioral Hospital
The Goal
To reduce locum tenens costs, assure provider quality, and improve vacancy fill rates.
The Solution
Acadia partnered with HWL to develop an efficient process for managing their locum program. HWL’s Locum Tenens Managed Services Program (MSP) includes a customized Vendor Management System (VMS) configured to Acadia’s needs.
HWL was uniquely qualified to solve Acadia’s problem because of its next-generation technology and deep experience in locum physician staffing. HWL’s robust technology development team also customized the VMS to meet Acadia’s needs.
After identifying and contracting with the most qualified locum agencies, HWL configured the VMS and trained vendors to use it. The technology supports an open marketplace sourcing process, giving all locum agencies an equal opportunity to fill orders at a market rate without fear of candidate poaching.
The dedicated HWL Account Manager directs the contracted vendors through the VMS. Facility CEOs can also use the VMS system to negotiate ad hoc rates within established rate parameters. Additionally, the workflow protects CEOs from agency marketing and solicitation, passing through only critical communication pertaining to candidate management.
“We appreciate the value of the HWL system to work on Acadia job openings. It saves time and gives us the ability to quickly fill openings. We see more opportunities in real time. It also speeds up the paperwork process before and after each placement.”
Dennis Beaupre, Senior Staffing Consultant at Wellhart, a nationwide locum tenens staffing agency
The Results
99% fill rate on orders since HWL Program Launch
Improved time to present candidate to less than 1 day
Significantly improved time to fill
Decreased locum spending by more than 50%
Improved quality of locums staff
Total transparency into locum usage and spending
The HWL Locum Tenens MSP solution was launched in June of 2017. With more than 25 vendors engaged as locum suppliers, the fill rate at Acadia facilities quickly rose to 99% and maintained at that level. The new protocol for candidate screening ensures a consistent quality of locum providers.
In addition to the impressive fill rate, Taft Brown, Vice President of Talent Acquisition for Acadia, estimates that the HWL Locum MSP has cut Acadia’s spending on locum providers by more than half.
“The results have exceeded our expectations, and we have achieved them by streamlining our processes and using the real-time data from the VMS.” Taft went onto explain, “When there is a need for a locum, the CEO makes one phone call to the dedicated HWL Account Manager, and they take care of everything from agency outreach to provider onboarding. Costs are down, fill rates are up, and the quality of staff is always consistent.”
The technology platform has provided visibility and metrics that are actionable. “For example, we use a weekly report from the system to focus our physician recruitment efforts on the markets where we have facilities using locums, which reduces lengths of assignments and lowers spend on locums.”
“The incredible thing,” Brown continues, “is that the service comes at no cost to Acadia.” HWL uses an industry-standard supplier-funded model, which allows health systems to implement the solution with no out-of-pocket capital expenditures. “There’s really no downside,” Brown says.
Facility CEOs like Ron Mays no longer must waste time and effort dealing with locum agencies. Mays explains, “Healthcare Workforce Logistics simplified the locum recruitment process through their online system. It allows us to fill open locum requisitions with high-quality, pre-screened candidates efficiently.”
Mays and other Acadia CEOs can return to running their facilities, leaving the task of locum recruitment to HWL’s Locum MSP.