Webinar Recap: Improve Margins, Scale Faster, Make More Placements
July 13, 2026
July 14, 2026
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Most healthcare staffing firms are watching the wrong number. They track time-to-fill and call it a day. But the real margin drain happens in the space between sourcing a candidate and getting them placed: the follow-ups that slip, the submissions that sit overnight, the compliance checks nobody chases until it's urgent.
That was the core message from the healthcare staffing webinar, conducted on13th July, where Holly Bass, Executive Director of NATHO, joined Scot Goldfarb, Solutions Principal at Ceipal, to unpack where firms actually lose time and money, and what top performers are doing differently.
Here's what came out of that conversation.
Start with an audit, not a purchase
Before adding another tool, look at what's already there. Bass put it plainly: firms need to "take a look at the tech stack... see what is going on, what systems are talking to each other, what systems aren't." Most inefficiency isn't a missing feature. It's a workflow nobody has looked at closely, or systems that don't share information the way they should.
For firms unsure where to start, the fix is simple: map the placement lifecycle end to end and find where handoffs create delay. That's where the audit begins, and that's where the savings usually are.
Automation and agentic AI are not the same thing
This distinction shaped the entire session. Automation executes a predefined task when triggered. Agentic AI plans, prioritizes, and coordinates action on its own, based on context and changing conditions. In staffing terms, automation sends a reminder. Agentic AI notices a candidate has gone quiet, triggers the right follow-up, and keeps a submission moving without a recruiter having to remember to check.
Bass described the shift in practice: "The system starts doing a lot of the coordinating and the work for them. Candidate follow-ups, compliance checks, timesheets, and paperwork are now being triggered automatically." The result isn't less recruiter involvement. It's recruiters spending their time on the parts of the job that actually require a person: talking to candidates, managing client relationships, solving problems that need judgment, not just execution.
In travel healthcare, where placements can be won or lost by hours, that shift in how a recruiter spends their day isn't only a nice-to-have. In fact, it's a competitive requirement.
Technology only works if everyone uses it the same way
Every panelist circled back to this point. New tools don't move the needle if adoption is inconsistent. As Bass noted, a platform "probably isn't super impactful if everyone's not using it or they're not using it the same way it was intended to be."
That means the investment doesn't end at purchase. Leadership has to own training and make sure the whole team is using the system the same way, or the ROI never shows up.
Speed matters. Quality of submission matters more
Time-to-fill and speed-to-submission are useful metrics, but chasing volume alone can backfire. Bass suggested a sharper lens: track speed to submission alongside submission quality. Firms that measure both stop optimizing for how many candidates go out the door and start optimizing for how many get placed. That's the metric that actually drives growth.
Relationships still decide who wins the placement
Even with better systems in place, the panel agreed the differentiator is still the relationship. Bass summed it up: "When we spend more time with our clinicians and candidates and our clients, we improve customer service. Employees get great tools, they become happier, and everything comes together to drive growth and success."
The technology isn't there to replace that relationship. It's there to free up the time to invest in it.
What this means for your firm
The firms pulling ahead aren't the ones with the most tools. They're the ones who audited their process first, understood the difference between automation and true agentic coordination, and made sure their team adopted it the same way, together.
If you're planning where to invest next, start with the audit. The gaps are usually visible once you know where to look.
Want to see the full session, and talk through what an agentic platform could look like for your firm? Watch the recording or Book a Demo and we'll walk you through it.
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