Alex Nazem, cofounder and CEO, Nomad Well being.
Nomad Well being
When Alexi Nazem was a hospital physician, he confronted a mountain of paperwork and bureaucratic hurdles anytime he wished to moonlight outdoors his hospital. For healthcare professionals facet gigs like these are widespread, so why ought to the method be so burdensome? Impressed by the potential for making use of the idea of different on-line marketplaces like AirBnB to healthcare temping, he and 4 cofounders (together with AlleyCorp founder Kevin Ryan) launched Nomad Well being in 2015.
In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, Nomad noticed explosive progress as hospitals, already going through nursing shortages, raced to fill roles in overburdened ICUs across the nation. Whereas the pandemic has (hopefully) peaked and journey nursing pay charges are receding from all-time highs, the underlying shift of far more of the healthcare workforce engaged in non permanent moderately than full-time roles is predicted to proceed.
“One of the vital essential classes that we have realized from this pandemic is that the medical workforce desires to work that method,” says CEO Nazem, 40. “They do not wish to be certain by these very inflexible and form of restricted alternatives – simply the identical method that every one the remainder of the workforce and all the remainder of the financial system is altering.”
Seeking to capitalize on this transformation, Nomad introduced Monday it has raised $105 million in fairness and debt financing led by Adams Road Companions and Icon Ventures, as the corporate expands past nurses to serve a wider team of workers, together with lab techs, ultrasound techs and bodily therapists. HealthQuest Capital joined as a brand new fairness investor, alongside present traders Polaris Companions, .406 Ventures, AlleyCorp, and RRE Ventures. J.P. Morgan and Trinity Capital offered the debt financing. Nomad has raised greater than $200 million in fairness and debt thus far.
Earlier than the pandemic started, touring roles used to primarily attraction to healthcare staff at first or finish of their careers. Now, this kind of work appeals to a much wider section of the market, says Nazem. First, there was the sense of ethical obligation and urgency to go to the place assist was wanted when the pandemic started. Second, given the danger and demand, the pay charges additionally tended to be a lot increased than everlasting roles. Short-term roles have additionally turned out to be an antidote to the burnout that plagues many employees positions. “Lots of people sought refuge in this type of select your personal journey observe of medication that allowed them to proceed using their expertise and serving individuals,” says Nazem.
Staffing Business Analysts estimates the temporary healthcare staffing market, which incorporates nurses, medical doctors and the group of technicians and different roles referred to as allied well being professionals, grew from $18.7 billion in 2019 to $39.8 billion in 2021. The quickest rising section was journey nursing, which noticed an almost 250% enhance – from $6.5 billion to $22.6 billion in the identical interval. “It’s totally a lot a spot labor marketplace for how helpful expertise is at any specific time and proper now nurses are extraordinarily helpful,” says Barry Asin, president of Staffing Business Analysts.
“The important thing factor in healthcare staffing is whoever can get the candidate over the long run tends to win.”
After peaking in 2021, the expectation is there can be some contraction, which Staffing Business Analysts estimates at a 14% lower year-over-year. It’s arduous to say precisely how issues will shake out however what’s clear is the baseline has modified. “We nonetheless imagine the market goes to be considerably bigger than it was pre-pandemic for the foreseeable future,” says Asin. The rise of expertise platforms are additionally fueling the standard legacy staffing corporations to attempt to compete and turn into extra tech-savvy, he provides: “However the important thing factor in healthcare staffing is whoever can get the candidate over the long run tends to win.”
That is the place Nomad’s traders suppose the corporate’s software program is essential. It’s “being nurse-centric versus health-system-centric,” says HealthQuest founder and managing companion Garheng Kong, who’s becoming a member of Nomad’s board. On the entrance finish, the user-friendly interface makes it straightforward for nurses and different healthcare staff to rapidly signal as much as begin looking for jobs, with job descriptions that provide comparative wage info and scores from individuals who’ve labored within the roles. “Versus the staffing company saying, ‘Here is a job for you. You qualify, you match, take it.’ What you get is a listing of all of the open requisitions and also you as a nurse can decide and select and determine which one you need,” says Kong, including this had led to a repeat use charge amongst customers above 70%.
There are round 250,000 clinicians utilizing Nomad’s market without spending a dime. Whereas Nomad makes use of advertising and acquisition campaigns, Nazem says round half of latest customers are coming through word-of-mouth. The corporate has employed Maquel Shaw, beforehand interim chief advertising officer at Overstock.com, within the position of CMO.
When a healthcare employee accepts a task, the particular person turns into a Nomad worker with well being advantages, malpractice insurance coverage, and a 401(ok) all through the gig. Most roles are likely to final round 13 weeks. “In distinction to all these different gig financial system corporations that you just come throughout which are combating so arduous to have the ability to classify individuals as unbiased contractors, we are saying no, we wish them to be our staff,” says Nazem.
Nomad’s paying prospects are round 4,000 healthcare organizations seeking to fill roles. On the backend, Nomad’s software program takes care of sourcing candidates, filtering {qualifications}, credentialing and different duties. There is no such thing as a upfront subscription price. Nomad payments the hospital, takes a fee, and pays out the wages and advantages to the healthcare employee. Nazem says the corporate, which is worthwhile, is on monitor to usher in round $700 million in income this yr.
Proper now, Nomad’s sights are nonetheless set on increasing the varieties of choices it has for non permanent roles, however Nazem doesn’t rule out serving to to fill everlasting positions sooner or later. Nazem and Asin agree there may be going to be consolidation within the non permanent healthcare staffing trade because the legacy gamers battle it out with the newer tech-focused upstarts. “Staffing, labor, headcounts are the primary problem in each boardroom of each healthcare system throughout the nation,” says Nazem. “That’s going to trigger a number of movement within the subsequent couple of years and we’re actually excited to have a front-row seat and an answer.”
