Empathy-Driven Design: How RefAssured Helps Gifted Healthcare Elevate the Human
In the past 90 days of Gifted Healthcare using RefAssured
References launched
2,000
Hours saved
5,000
Leads generated
500
Introduction: A Tectonic Shift
The COVID pandemic was a defining moment in several generations’ lifetimes, both from a personal and technological perspective. Almost overnight, the need for nurses and other healthcare heroes was accelerated to a level not seen in 100 years, and simultaneously, millions of previously analog businesses had to transform their operating models to digital with no forewarning.
At Gifted Healthcare, an award-winning travel nurse and allied health staffing agency, the move to digitally enabled staffing underscored the tremendous need for software-as-a-service solutions and a human-centered approach to serving nurses on the pandemic frontlines. With only their mobile devices as a constant, thousands of travel nurses relied on Gifted to acclimate to the needs of an unprecedented time.
The Problem: Adjusting to a "Permanent Displacement"
Fast forward three years, and the world of healthcare staffing has been indelibly changed. Mobile-first design thinking is ubiquitous and table stakes, and all the healthcare staffing agencies and hospitals that previously relied exclusively on paper records have had to adapt to a new digital world, led by the talent themselves, who are conducting more business than ever before on their handheld devices and expect their providers to do the same.
“Nurse staffing has experienced a permanent displacement,” said Craig Wigginton, Chief Information Officer at Gifted Healthcare. “From 2018 to 2023, nurses have gone digital in their quest to find travel and per diem placements, and agencies that have not converted to be full digital agencies are not delivering market-leading nurse satisfaction. Nurses may love their recruiters, but if they don’t have the self-service tools they need or if those solutions aren’t built with their needs in mind, it’s all moot. We owe it to our nurses to deliver the best experience possible.”
It was with this reality in mind that the team at Gifted realized that their manual reference checking process was limiting their ability to meet the digital moment. When they were introduced to RefAssured, the value of the platform became immediately apparent: better compliance, faster placements, and hire quality. “We needed a solution to meet nurses where they are,” said Wigginton, “which means allowing them to launch reference checks on their phone when they have time – based on their schedule.”
“RefAssured immediately stood out to us because it’s staffing focused and designed with staffing workflows in mind,” he continued. “And while it’s a reference checking platform, the value of the intelligence and insights it provides goes so far beyond reference checking. It’s a current, modern-day platform in how it’s designed, how it operates, and the value it unlocks for us, and our nurses.”
The Solution: Human-Centered Automation from RefAssured
Gifted went live on RefAssured’s reference checking platform in January of 2024. The implementation process was almost effortless. “We called RefAssured and they flipped an API key and we went live immediately because it’s true cloud-based software,” said Wigginton. “We were up and running within a day.”
The Gifted team has achieved a 90%+ rate of internal adoption thanks to the way the RefAssured platform was designed – to be intuitive and map unobtrusively to how a human being inherently performs actions. For candidates, that means a user-friendly and efficient intake process in which they can add reference giver information without having to download cumbersome apps or rely on a specific type of device. For reference givers – who then become possible client or candidate leads for Gifted – the process of completing a reference is fast, considerate, and designed to generate honest and ultimately actionable insight.
In addition, RefAssured integrates seamlessly with a variety of solutions in Gifted’s tech stack, underscoring the platform’s ability to meet customers wherever they live, whatever they need, with true extensibility.
“We selected RefAssured because it is a complete end-to-end cloud platform,” said Wigginton, “Top-notch cloud platforms should be quick to configure, intuitive for users, and should enhance the workflow for all users, which is exactly what we found with RefAssured. The best cloud software starts generating ROI the first day, and RefAssured checked the box on that from day one. The platform helps us go faster, generate more revenue, and accelerate placements. RefAssured is designed to grow with us, like a true partner.”
Craig Wigginton
Chief Information Officer
Gifted Healthcare
[RefAssured] was designed with empathy for users at its core. And the platform has empathy because the team that built it has empathy. Empathy means creating a level of trust and transparency with your customers to anticipate their needs, build intuitive software, and listen to feedback when they speak. It means giving honest advice that is predicated upon a synchronicity of goals and values. It means caring about people and demonstrating that care by developing technology that makes life easier, and respects users by saving them time.
The Results: A Thoughtful Team and Platform for the Future of Healthcare Staffing
In just the past quarter of using RefAssured organization-wide, Gifted has completed nearly 2,000 reference requests and has saved 5,000 hours compared to their previously manual process. They’ve generated more than 100 new client leads and 400 new candidate leads, with conversion rates surpassing expectations. And because the implementation time took only a day, the team at Gifted has been generating ROI from RefAssured almost immediately since adopting it.
With RefAssured’s value flywheel of quality, growth, and speed that increases in strength the more it revolves, Gifted Healthcare has high hopes for the future of the partnership.
“We know that candidate past performance data is a huge source of rich insight that can inform numerous decisions,” said Wigginton. “When you have the best interests of your nurses and recruiters in mind, as we do, and as RefAssured does, there’s a lot of potential you can unleash from a platform and a partnership like this one.”
Craig Wigginton concludes with an assessment of the RefAssured platform and a hypothesis on what makes it different: “It was designed with empathy for users at its core. And the platform has empathy because the team that built it has empathy. Empathy means creating a level of trust and transparency with your customers to anticipate their needs, build intuitive software, and listen to feedback when they speak. It means giving honest advice that is predicated upon a synchronicity of goals and values. It means caring about people and demonstrating that care by developing technology that makes life easier, and respects users by saving them time.”
About Gifted Healthcare
Gifted Healthcare is an award-winning travel nursing agency that offers nursing, allied health, and school-based opportunities at premier facilities and school districts across the United States. We believe in the power that you have to make a difference in a patient’s care. This inspires us to help you thrive and advance your career by providing exceptional job opportunities, day-one benefits, and 24/7 support.
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