GREENSBORO, N.C., May 20, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prophecy Healthcare, Inc., the leading provider of holistic, online clinical assessments, announced today that all staffing agency clients gained access to the full battery of pre-hire healthcare assessments: Clinical Competencies, Behavioral Assessments, and Video-Based Situational Judgment Tests. Offering staffing agencies assessments that evaluate beyond clinical knowledge provides brand new insights into placement decisions.  Selecting healthcare professionals with the right interpersonal skills and patient satisfaction skills to represent their organizations will strengthen vendor relationships while reducing Do Not Returns (DNRs) for no-shows and attitude challenges.

Staffing firms invest a considerable amount of time and resources upfront in supplemental staff.  To turn a profit from finding open positions and relocating travel nurses, those contracts must be carried out in full.  However, staffing firms understand the liability associated with travel positions.  Travel nurses step into a group of individuals who already posses an established level of trust.  Recruiters find that most DNRs and breaks in contract are due to behavioral-based incidents.  Using Prophecy's Behavioral and Interpersonal Competence assessments to predict how staff will interact on the nursing floor, provides recruiters a way to complete their due diligence first, significantly reducing behavioral-based DNRs.  

In addition, staffing firms that are seeking Joint Commission certification, or for those who are already certified, Prophecy's Behavioral and Situational assessments can be utilized as a tool in the creation and ongoing compliance with Performance Measurement and Improvement standards.  As stated in the certification manual, "Performance improvement is a continuous process:  the goal is to improve performance and then maintain it.  Leaders play essential roles in performance improvement because they must plan for data management, work with data, and analyze data.  Planning, implementing, and evaluating are the dynamic steps in the performance improvement cycle" (The Joint Commission, 2010)1.  

There are two standardized measures that apply to Health Care Staffing Services certification directly tied to data collected from the Prophecy's battery of assessments:  HCSS-1:  Do Not Return - Clinical and HCSS-2:  Do Not Return - Behavioral.  In addition to monthly data points for each of these measures, all firms must demonstrate efforts at creating and maintaining their Performance Improvement Plan.  

"When instances of Clinical or Behavioral DNRs occur for Prophecy's Healthcare Staffing Consulting Clients, our consults use Prophecy's assessments to develop a Performance Improvement Plan," explained Leslie Jeffries, RN, BSN, VP of Test Development & Validation. "Prophecy's Behavioral and Situational assessments are well poised at identifying clinical hard skills, personality traits, and interpersonal skills that may have contributed to the specific Do Not Return." 

Jeffries continued with, "The results pages offered after completing Prophecy's assessments help identify specific opportunities for improvement. We feel confident that a personal plan for improvement yields better results when it comes to demonstrating traits associated with higher levels of patient satisfaction and safety."

Staffing firms can benefit from the Behavioral and Situational Assessments throughout the entire staffing cycle:

• Valuable Insights at Point of Application
• Holistic, Un-matched presentation of candidates for placement
• Guided Performance Improvement Plans

"Placed staff are a reflection on the staffing firm's organization.  We are pleased that we provide assessments to the staffing industry that help position their organizations for success," commented Ron Gonzalez, Founder & CEO of Prophecy.  "Joining alongside our clients to select and present top applicants, with not only the clinical aptitude but interpersonal strengths needed in healthcare, translates to improving patient experiences across the care continuum."

1. The Joint Commission.  (2010).  Performance measurement and improvement standards, rationales, elements of performance, and scoring.  Health Care Staffing Services Certification Manual (pm-3).  Oakbrook Terrace, IL:  Joint Commission Resources.

About Prophecy Healthcare, Inc.

Originally founded in 2004 as NurseTesting.com, Prophecy Healthcare® got its start as the first online Pre-Employment Testing Company exclusive to the Healthcare Industry. Initially focusing solely on clinical assessments measuring clinical competencies, efforts to exceed industry expectations led to isolating critical competencies missed in traditional testing initiatives, such as stress tolerance, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. The Prophecy approach offers the ability to find candidates with the clinical hard skills, personality attributes, and desired soft skills to match each organization. For more information about Prophecy, visit http://www.prophecyhealth.com or call 336.802.1070.

Follow our official Twitter handle: @Prophecy_Health.

About Prophecy Professional Services

Prophecy Professional Services - a division of Prophecy Healthcare - was founded in response to the healthcare staffing industry's need for consultants experienced in Joint Commission's Health Care Staffing Services Certification. PPS' consulting services assist healthcare staffing firms prepare for Joint Commission certification and provide cost effective clinical operation and risk management services. PPS consultants are nationally experienced Nurse Executives with 35+ years of healthcare staffing experience and extensive experience and success with Joint Commission Health Care Staffing Services Certification. Visit http://prophecyhealth.com/professional-services for additional information.