Medical staffing franchiser draws bead on Orlando

July 7-13, 2006

Orlando Business Journal

BrightStar Healthcare, a staffing provider to hospitals and other medical establishments as well as the home-care field, is looking to open three franchises in the Orlando area, plus branches in Jacksonville, Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

The Chicago-based company already operates franchises in Tampa, Naples, Fort Myers and Sarasota.

Shelly Sun, BrightStar’s founder and president, expects the Florida market to easily support the businesses.  “There are a lot of Seniors in Florida,” she says.  “We expect all of our franchises to achieve a similar level of success that we have achieved in Chicago.”

Healthy staffing biz

Medical staffing is a $1.2 billion-a-year industry and is experiencing plenty of growth, says David Savitsky, chairman of the American Staffing Association healthy care policy council and CEO of Lake Success, N.Y.-based ATC Healthcare Services Inc.

In 1998, health care staffing companies made up about 15 percent of ASA’s membership. By 2005, that number was up to 26 percent.

Savitsky, whose company opened up an Orlando location last June, says Florida is an especially promising market for the medical staffing industry because it’s a year-round tourist destination. Also, he notes that Florida, like many areas of the country, is experiencing a severe nurse shortage.

Currently, there are 120,000 open nursing positions in the state – a number that is expected to go up to 800,000 by 2020.

Though ATC only provides medical staffing services, Savitsky says it is not unusual for a company such as BrightStar to provide both staffing services and home-care personnel because of the overlap between the two fields.

Up to 80 people per franchise

The three BrightStar franchises planned for Orlando would each employee between 50 and 80 health care professionals and administrative staff, company officials say.

All employees are required to be state-certified and participate in continuing education and strict customer service training, the company says.

Sun, who staffs her offices 24/7, says that is especially important for homecare employees. “If they wouldn’t send a caregiver into their own home to care for their children or parent, then they’re not good enough for BrightStar,” she says.

Sun says she realized the need for a higher standard of home health care services when trying to find home care for her husband’s grandmother in 2001. The couple, she says, went through several agencies and encountered problems, including caregivers that failed to show and an inability to reach the agencies’ offices with questions.

“We were looking for more – and we think other families are also,” Sun says.

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