Demand for temporary help in several segments of the health-care industry started to rebound recently following a slump, and remains high in other parts of the industry, such as home care and rehabilitation services, say temp-help agencies here.


Agencies say the long-term outlook for having adequate personnel in health care is mostly positive, although rising health-care costs, hospital cutbacks and layoffs, and an increase in the number of health-care specialists entering the market muddy their crystal balls.


Dixie Thompson, a staffing manager at Medicalpros, a subsidiary of Spokane-based Provisional Staffing Services, says shes optimistic that requests for temporary medical help will continue to strengthen in 2005.


Medicalpros provides temporary help for medical offices in Spokane, Coeur dAlene, and the Tri-Cities area, and in 2005 has been placing between 20 and 30 temp workers in jobs every week, up slightly from last year, Thompson says.


She declines to disclose the privately held companys revenues, but says that so far in 2005, theyre up from last year.


Demand for physicians, nurses, specialists, and medical office staff has risen gradually over the last several months following about a six-month decline, Thompson says.


Things are picking up across the board, she says. Our business is growing because medical practices here are growing.


TechGroup Inc., a Spokane-based concern that provides temporary workers who have specialized skills to hospitals across the country and nurses to health-care facilities in part of the Northwest, is guarded about projecting a big bump in demand for temp workers this year.


The health-care staffing industry continues to stabilize following a 1 1/2 year to two-year downturn, says company CEO Lisa Dittmar. Whats happening is that the industry is starting to recover, and there is a swing in the market.


TechGroup has two segments of its business. The first deals with what it calls allied-health professionals. They are specialists, who work in a medical facilitys radiology, respiratory, or laboratory department and include ultrasonographers, magnetic-resonance technologists, respiratory therapists, and numerous others.


TechGroup places those specialists in hospitals across the country, although more than half of its allied health personnel are located in about 11 Western states. It places those workers in temp jobs that can last anywhere from one week to several years.


In the other segment of the TechGroups business, the company places nurses at health-care facilities within 200 to 300 miles of Spokane.


The company doesnt arrange temp work for physicians and it doesnt place allied-health professionals or nurses in Spokane-area hospitals or medical offices because the existing labor pool here is sufficient to meet any labor demands, Dittmar says.


The medical temp-help industry went through a down cycle in the mid-90s, and during the recovery period that followed, demand increased dramatically, Dittmar says. That probably wont happen this time, she says.


I see the allied-health industry holding on a plateau, she says. One reason is there is a saturation of those workers who are flooding the market. The other is the overall economy.


Dittmar declines to disclose TechGroups revenues.


The nursing segment of our business is doing well, Dittmar says. The allied-health division is starting to increase, but its a slow swing. Right now, the hospitals are driving the market.


With many U.S. hospitals in a belt-tightening mode, hiring out-of-town temporary allied-health professionals isnt attractive to them, because of the costs associated with those hirings, she says. In addition to a temp workers salary, hospitals must pay for their travel and lodging costs.


During the most recent downturn, TechGroup focused on maintaining good relationships with clients and looked at ways to improve its service, Dittmar says.


Home care demand surging


Meantime, an executive at the Spokane office of Kelly Home Care Services Inc., a subsidiary of Troy, Mich.-based Kelly Services Inc. that provides nursing assistance to people living in the Inland Northwest, says demand has surged over the last four months.


Weve noticed a big increase, says Lisa Rodriguez, the companys district manager. I am getting calls from other agencies asking to borrow our caregivers.


Kelly Home Care places about 50 temp workers a week. Its workers perform a wide breadth of services, including cooking, cleaning, bathing clients, providing transportation, and reminding clients to take their medicine.


The Spokane operation of Kelly Home Care had revenues of more than $1 million last year, down 20 percent from the year before.


Rodriguez attributes the falloff in last years numbers to an oversaturated market. She estimates that at least four new medical temp-help agencies have entered the Spokane-area market during the last five years.


I know Kelly has lost clients to less expensive agencies, she says. We may not be the cheapest in town, but the quality is there. We do a lot of little things, and I think people will continue to come back to us.


High demand for rehab services


Although some parts of the medical temp-help industry had lagged, demand for rehabilitation services workers continues to be high, says Donelle Odren, owner and president of Northwest Therapy Resources PS, of Spokane Valley.


I have the same amount of therapists as I did last year, and I would hire more if I could because demand has grown 25 percent to 30 percent, Odren says.


Northwest Therapy provides temp workers who specialize in physical therapy, speech-language therapy, and occupational therapy. The company serves hospitals, medical offices, various outpatient clinics, and nursing homes. It places between 20 and 30 temp workers each week.


The demand is such that the temp workers can pick and choose assignments that are appealing to them, she says. I think the market will stabilize because were going to have an influx of graduates entering the field in June.


Odren declines to disclose Northwest Therapys revenues, but says the company has grown steadily since she founded it 12 years ago.


In general, people are seeing greater flexibility in staffing with temporary employees rather than full-time benefited employees, she says. I think thats one of the reasons for the growth.