The early days of the VMS/MSP penetration into the healthcare staffing industry, the choices were pretty vanilla. While purchasing departments had been using the process for everything from syringes to bed linens, the management of outsourced personnel was slower to catch on. Much of the hesitation was the minimal amount of documentation available in most systems for the extensive list of credentials, work histories and any Joint Commission required documentation.

Early examples of the system were simple pass-throughs of time and attendance with minimal information regarding the actual temp. The acquisition of a commodity such as syringes could be easily identified with a few required specifications. The number of requirements for personnel, however, was so complex that part of the process was usually handled outside the VMS application.

As the industry has become more sophisticated, most of the criteria for personnel have been added to the applications via portals that are viewable at the client end.

BlueSky has taken this one step further to allow subcontractors to “customize” their portal, and even allow for the end client to customize their portal to look and feel the way they want.  Although BlueSky provides a simple plug-and-play template for the VMS application, there are actually over 2,100 variable permissions that may be customized to better meet the client, or subcontractors’ needs.