The staffing shortage in the healthcare industry is well-known: over the course of the pandemic alone, it has cost hospitals $24B. With staff shortages projected for every state by 2026 and, presumably, more financial losses, it is well-worth asking how medical facilities can potentially address the issue before it reaches such a point. One company that is already working to solve the problem is Ondek Healthcare, co-founded by BSN and RN Tanya Salyers and COO Brandon Salyers. We stopped by Ondek to talk with Tanya and Brandon, who told us more about the company’s unique approach to helping administrators to staff their facilities with qualified staff and to streamline the recruitment and retainment process, ultimately saving time and money.

“There are already many recruitment agencies out there, of course,” says Tanya. “The idea of hospitals outsourcing their HR needs isn’t new. If that’s true, then the question becomes why it hasn’t been working. If facilities are still struggling to staff shifts despite all the help out there, then can something be improved? Brandon and I analyzed the market and found key gaps that we could fill through Ondek.”

Their background, Brandon says, is why Ondek excels right from the start. “Tanya is a nurse, and as the majority owner of Ondek, she has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare. She was an amazing nurse for decades and saw all of the staffing issues that plagued the industry. She decided to sidestep out of the industry, form Ondek, and solve those problems so that the industry that she loves so much could thrive the way she knew it could.”

Brandon, Tanya is quick to add, has been no less crucial to the success of Ondek. “Brandon is a driven, business-minded owner with experience in the restaurant industry, oil and gas, and investments,” she explains. “He knows how to run a thriving company from the ground up, so he has been fundamental to Ondek being what it is today: a HUB and MBE that was started with $40K in our garage and that is now valued at $18M.”

The two first decided on Ondek’s values since they believed that the end result – patient care – would be affected by what the company’s leadership believed in. “At the forefront of Ondek we placed integrity, accountability, grit, and old-fashioned hard work,” Tanya reveals. “We couldn’t improve the staffing and patient care in facilities if we ourselves didn’t have these values.”

Tanya and Brandon also focused on the culture at Ondek. “We decided we had to be committed and create a caring atmosphere that would mean our team would never want to leave at the end of the day. 

The co-founders then leveraged Tanya’s detailed understanding of the healthcare system, including its limitations, to create the infrastructure of Ondek’s recruitment process.

“First of all, the 9-5 idea had to go,” she remembers. “As any medical professional knows, medicine is 24/7, and that means an emergency can happen in the wee hours of the night, as can a staffing shortage. The idea that a medical staffing organization was only open during select hours was a bit silly, frankly, so we made Ondek open around the clock.”

The pair focused on streamlining the recruitment of qualified medical personnel by incorporating the latest technology into Ondek. “This took some time,” Tanya says, “but we prioritized trust and expertise to choose the right tech team. Everyone we have brought in we consider a family member,  one that has completed the puzzle on the tech side. Our tech people are awesome.”

Brandon says that technology is crucial because the importance of the digital space will continue to grow in healthcare. “Medical staffing will no longer be done over the phone, so making our services more automated and digitized made sense. We are actually ahead of the curve because we chose to cut out unnecessary HR processes and replace them with streamlined technology to save time and get a clinician out to a facility faster and with more accountability. At the same time, we prioritize the best employees because after all, digital platforms still need human engagement.”

The result of their effort, Tanya continues, has been a reimagining of how medical personnel are staffed, and the improvements are already noticeable. “Because we have improved the screening processes and found better ways to recruit top talent and prevent shortages, overtime has been reduced up to 90%,” she says. “Scheduling time has been cut by 90%. We have improved efficiency rates of nurse-patient care ratio assignments by 97%. Ondek is achieving everything we envisioned when we started the company out of our garage.”

That includes less burnout for nurses and clinicians and more retention of quality medical staff by facilities. Brandon says they are making people happier, including administrators, professionals, and patients. “We are improving the whole patient-care experience,” he states. “Our medical staff are heroes. They deserve to feel energized as they go about their jobs, helping sick people get better. If Ondek can help make that happen, then we have done our job.”

Ondek Healthcare LLC is a healthcare placement firm that assists healthcare facilities with short-term and long-term supplemental staffing needs. It is Black-owned, women-owned, and nurse-owned. Ondek’s subsidiaries include Medcruit and Ondek LabXpress. Medcruit is a web platform that empowers clinicians and facilities with lean processes tailored to their specific needs. Ondek LabXpress is a diagnostic test center that offers CLIA waived testing, blood sugar testing, Urine drug screen, Alcohol testing, HCG Testing, COVID testing, and more.