BidShift provides hospitals online auction services to fill open shifts with existing staff. The auctions take a number of forms, allowing nurses to bid on shifts and pay levels.

“The pain that managers have is being on the phone, begging people to work to just get a body in there,” said Bruce Springer, president and chief executive officer of BidShift. “We’re trying to ease that pain.”

In the midst of a national nursing shortage, many hospitals regularly struggle to fill open shifts. In California, hospitals also have new mandatory staffing levels to meet.

When hospitals cannot find staff to fill openings, they typically turn to more expensive temporary nurse staffing companies for bodies. The reliance on temporary staffing companies is expensive for hospitals, and many are increasingly turning to companies like BidShift for help getting the most out of their staff.

The company has five types of real-time bidding. Some operate like eBay auctions in reverse, with the hospital setting an initial price and nurses bidding against each other – each offering to accept a lower pay rate. In others, nurses simply bid for a shift for which the pay is already set.

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Posted: 01|25|06 at 9:51 am. Filed under: US News.