Fastaff Travel Nursing Meets Growth Demands with Expanded Sales Leadership Strength

DENVER, June 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fastaff Travel Nursing, a Staffing Industry Analyst Top 100 and Fastest Growing healthcare staffing company, has appointed four new sales leaders to accommodate continued nationwide demand for Rapid Response® travel nurse staffing solutions.

The senior sales leaders who have joined the team are Executive Vice President Betty Wageman, Vice President of Client Services Kathy Kohnke, Vice President of Business Development Liz Johnson Nesladek and Vice President of National Sales Curt Bowe.

"As the pioneer and industry leader of Rapid Response® nurse staffing, Fastaff enjoys a healthy demand for our one-of-a-kind guaranteed approach to filling urgent and crucial needs, often in ten days or less," said Fastaff President and CEO Allison Beer. "The talent we've added on the sales team brings an enhanced level of expertise to consult clients on how and when to use this unique staffing solution."

Industry veteran and former vice president with CompHealth and AMN Healthcare Betty Wageman will lead sales and account management teams recognized for providing industry-leading customer service.  As hospitals and their channel partners increasingly rely on Fastaff's guaranteed solution for planned and unplanned nurse shortages, particularly in hard-to-fill specialties, Wageman's teams provide advanced consultative partnership on the cost efficiency and productivity gains of flexible length assignments, 48-hour work weeks, and full-nurse utilization.

"Matching appropriate staffing to patient volumes is something that keeps nurse leaders up at night," said Wageman. "Admitting high-acuity patients and ensuring proper coverage from experienced providers is a major concern when hospitals face shortages in specialized positions. Fastaff's guaranteed delivery of this hard-to-fill segment, with over half the nurses in our database experienced in highly specialized positions, fills a critical need in the marketplace." 

Kathy Kohnke, who served multiple executive roles in 16 years with HealthTrust (formerly Parallon) including interim CEO and most recently executive vice president of advisory services, brings to Fastaff 30 years of experience as a knowledgeable and trusted partner advising clients on hiring the right labor at the right time for the right cost. She has an unmatched familiarity of the challenges facing hospital executives who are balancing declines in reimbursement against providing comprehensive quality patient coverage. Kohnke's perspective lends strategic insight into defining appropriate core hiring levels to optimize productivity, while anticipating the disruption of planned and unplanned staff vacancies.

"We have never seen a state of the industry with greater cost pressure on hospitals and a greater need for full nurse utilization," said Kohnke. "The flexibility of the Fastaff model is the perfect solution to optimize productivity, and I've been admiring it and leveraging it for years. Pair that with the Top Workplace culture that Fastaff is recognized for, and I was thrilled about the opportunity to join this team."

Liz Johnson Nesladek joins Fastaff after a successful business development career with over a decade in health care staffing. Most recently with SpecialtyCare, Inc, she worked with hospitals and large systems to develop strategic outsourcing solutions. Before joining SpecialtyCare, Nesladek's tenure at Platinum Select Healthcare Staffing and AMN Healthcare included leading world-class sales teams and developing creative solutions for clients' complex staffing challenges. Nesladek has a thorough understanding of the operational cost challenges hospitals face in staffing the right nurse in the right position at the right time.

Curt Bowe joins Fastaff with over 20 years of business development experience collaborating with hospitals to provide innovative outsourced operational solutions. He draws on extensive business development leadership in both new sales and client retention, with a consistent record of developing winning strategies aligned with client business goals. His experience with executive level decision-makers complements Fastaff's trusted advisor approach helping leaders navigate the changing health care environment in small and large hospital systems.

Amid 2017 health care regulatory uncertainty, the need for experienced and specialized nurses remains strong. The expense and disruption of high-acuity vacancies continues to challenge hospitals nationwide and remains a struggle for travel staffing agencies to solve. For this reason, Fastaff remains dedicated to acquiring and retaining experienced specialized nurses ready to hit the ground running in urgent and crucial situations. With industry-leading flexibility, including assignment lengths as short as two weeks, and freedom for hospitals to cancel with only a four-shift notice and no fees, Fastaff enables greater control for the hospital in their pursuit of optimizing productivity.

About Fastaff Travel Nursing®
As the pioneer and industry leader of Rapid Response® travel nurse staffing, Fastaff has grown to become a premier staffing partner, providing urgent and crucial temporary nurses to hospitals in need while offering its travel nurses the highest pay in the industry. Fastaff partners with many of the nation's largest and most prestigious health care facilities – as well as small community hospitals – to meet acute staffing needs and provide round-the-clock, unparalleled patient care. In 2016, Fastaff was voted the top 8th workplace in Colorado by the Denver Post and ranked among elite staffing firms on Staffing Industry Analyst's Largest Staffing Firm and Fastest Growing Staffing Firm lists. Visit www.fastaff.com for more information and connect with Fastaff on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Fastaff Travel Nursing