An Edmond-based medical staffing company now is offering temporary and permanent placement of dialysis nurses, in addition to pharmacists, at health facilities nationwide.
AccuStat Healthcare Staffing (AHS), which opened in May 2010 after acquiring Houston-based PharmStat Staffing LLC, this month announced its new AHS RenalStat service.
“We want to expand our business into disciplines that have a need,” CEO Mark Smith said.
According to the National Institutes of Health, kidney failure — which is caused primarily by diabetes — accounts for about 6 percent of the hundreds of billions of Medicare dollars spent each year, Smith said.
“There’s a high demand for nurses as the patient population is growing at 4 percent a year, starting with obesity and moving to diabetes and ultimately end stage renal disease,” he said.
AHS RenalStat already has 15 interested dialysis nurses, and three dozen placement orders from hospitals and dialysis centers in Texas, California, Arizona and Ohio, Smith said.
At its offices at 2801 Coltrane Place, AHS employs eight, including recruiters and schedulers. Annual revenues last year were $2.6 million, up from $1.6 million in 2010.
With about 2,000 pharmacists in its database, PharmStat has served about 100 clients, who represent nearly 300 pharmacies in 28 states, AHS president Jerick Henley said.
Some of the service’s pharmacists, Henley said, have full-time jobs but pick up weekend work for extra income. But most are retired empty-nesters, desiring part-time work, he said.
Such is the case with Don Wilson, 71, of Hobart, and Buck Payne, 62, of Houston.
“I wanted to work two to three days a week, but I didn’t know who needed pharmacists,” said Wilson, who for the past 15 months has worked for a small family-owned pharmacy in Spearman, Texas. “I turned to a service, and now I never have to look for work. They’re looking for me.
Wilson and his wife, Paula, a pharmacy technician who can fill in if needed, live in Spearman during the week but head home on the weekends.
Payne joined AHS PharmStat shortly after he retired from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., where he worked as a national pharmaceutical sales manager. Typically, he works two to three days a week, and he currently is working at a pharmacy 100 miles from his house.
“I enjoy keeping myself mentally active and using the knowledge I have to help someone clinically,” Payne said. “But I like the flexibility to be able to hunt, fish and do the things I like to do.” ~NewsOk.com~
