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| TO YOUR HEALTH: Symbio Solutions COO Rodney Shifflette brings practical business applications to the hectic health care industry. photography by Jeremy Sharp |
Hospitals employ countless workers in myriad job positions—from landscapers to nurses to brain surgeons—and filling the diverse staffing needs can be a nightmare for hospital administrators. Rodney Shifflette had an idea: Why not apply the principles of vendor management from other industries to health care? The result is Symbio Solutions of Dallas, which has developed a Web-based system for health care facilities to contract with staffing vendors through a simple Web interface. “Hospitals had to procure staff through very labor-intensive ways,” Shifflette says. “They had to spend a lot of time and money every day talking to different vendors, making a list every morning of who they needed, and waiting by the phone, fax, or e-mail. We eliminated all of that.”
Shifflette, COO of Symbio, says that the company’s system is in place at more than 400 health care facilities nationwide, from small clinics to major hospitals. Revenues for the company, founded in 2003 by Shifflette and Symbio Chief Technology Officer Bob Campbell, have grown by more than 100 percent each year, and the staff has multiplied in size from two employees to 46. The secret according to Shifflette: “We work together with our clients to help us come up with the right solutions,” he says.
Now, Symbio, whose name alludes to the symbiosis the company hopes to achieve with its clients, has its sights set on the future. “We are growing into total workforce management,” Shifflette says, adding that hospitals will one day be able to track attendance and schedules for employees through Web-based biometric systems. “We are in a position to create a mutually beneficial environment between us and our clients.” A perfect symbiotic relationship.
