First and foremost, Royce Drye will tell you, hes a professional fisherman who spends a few weeks each year trying to hook trophy walleye for big money prizes.


It might not be surprising that the Spokane company he co-founded, The Tech Group Inc., specializes in trolling for another sort of valuable catchhealth-care professionals who are willing to work temporarily at hospitals around the country.


A hospital enlists Tech Group to hunt for temporary help when it cant find a permanent employee to fill a position, typically after it has exhausted its other options, Drye says. Tech Group then sends one of its temporary workers, which it also refers to as external employees, to work at the hospital for a certain amount of time, which averages about six weeks, but has varied from one week to three years.


Tech Group refers to specialists who work in a medical facilitys radiology, respiratory, or laboratory department as allied-health professionals. They include ultrasonagraphers, magnetic-resonance imaging technologists, respiratory therapists, and numerous others. It also arranges work for nurses, but not for doctors.


Since it opened its doors in 1989, the company has placed temporary workers in 400 different hospitals throughout the country. It typically has 50 to 60 employees working at medical facilities at any given time. Those temps come from all over the country.


Right now, the demand is driving the market, Drye says. We have a lot more job orders than we can fill with personnel.


The U.S.s generally tight labor market has been good for Tech Groupand its financial performanceover the last few years. With its services at a premium, the company has boosted its revenues about 40 percent annually for the last three years. It had revenue of $12.2 million last year and is projecting that figure will climb to $16.5 million this year, which would be about a 35 percent increase.


Tech Group currently has 30 employeesthats the companys own staff, not any of the workers it placesat its corporate headquarters, which are on the sixth floor of the Paulsen Building, at 421 W. Riverside, in downtown Spokane. Though the company is cramped in its 6,500 square feet of office space there, Drye says he expects to hire seven additional in-office employees soon.


Last fall, Tech Group bought the former Integrus Architecture PS building, at 242 W. Main. It currently is remodeling the two-story, 16,000-square-foot structure in a $400,000 project and plans to move there by October.


In addition to buying and remodeling its new headquarters building, Tech Group plans to open a satellite office in Post Falls later this year that will administer its nursing division. The company began offering temporary nurse staffing last June, Drye says, and it expects that segment of its business to grow quickly.


Tech Group attracts most of its temporary employees by advertising in professional trade journals and through word of mouth among health-care workers. While the company sometimes must dig deep to find available health-care professionals, it puts temporary workers through a stringent qualifying process, Drye says. He says that process involves background checks, drug testing, job history screening, reference checks, and skill-set testing.


After a temporary worker completes the companys qualifying process, Tech Group helps the professional secure licensing in the state where he or she will be working. The company rarely is able to fill a position with a worker who already is licensed in the state where he or she is needed.


The requirements for obtaining professional licensing for medical positions vary from state to state. In some cases, Drye says, Tech Group hasnt been able to obtain licensing for a professional to work in a state. In most instances, however, it takes a week to 10 days to get a license for an allied-health professional or a nurse, he says.


Why they temp


Why would a health-care professional work as a temporary employee, especially when the job market is tight and he or she likely could find a permanent position?


The biggest reason is that health-care professionals earn higher pay in temporary jobs than in permanent positions, since hospitals pay a premium price to bring in temporary workers. The obvious drawback is that temporary work isnt guaranteed over time.


Also, Tech Group, which is paid by its customers and then pays the temporary workers, pays for the temporary employees transportation to and from the community where he or she will work, as well as for lodging. Because of their advantages, some medical professionals choose the temporary work as a lifestyle that allows them to see different parts of the country, basically for free, Drye says. Some health-care temps hes talked to have cited burnout in their careers as a reason for leaving permanent positions and working temporary jobs as a change of pace.


About half of the hospitals that have hired Tech Group workers are located in 11 Western states, and the other half are scattered throughout the U.S., Drye says.


Drye and his partner, Michael McLaughlin, started Tech Group after McLaughlin landed a temping job with Holy Family Hospital, on Spokanes North Side, 11 years ago. McLaughlin, a respiratory therapist, is vice president of Tech Group, but he still works mostly as a temp, filling jobs for hospitals nationwide.


Drye and McLaughlin were the companys only employees during its first six years. They hired a third employee in 1995. That employee, Lisa Dittmar, now is a part owner and works as the director of staffing.


The companys employees sometimes refer to themselves as Dryes fish. To welcome him back from a fishing tournament sometime ago, they made a humorous poster with pictures of employees making fish faces. The caption reads, You were missed by all of your fish.


Drye says, We try to make this a fun endeavor.