Global Source Healthcare

Global Source Healthcare

TRENDS

Over the past two decades, the healthcare industry in the United States has shown rapid growth due to increased demand for healthcare services. The following trends provide some insight as to why this expansion industry shows no sign of slowing. For one, the population is aging due to Baby Boomers entering retirement. Another reason is the growing concern with an American epidemic of obesity and the subsequent health problems which include, but are not limited to: diabetes, heart disease and cancer. However, one important trend commonly gets overlooked because it is not on the patient side, but on the operating side, is the decrease in healthcare staff. Changes in healthcare and insurance laws, stiffening government legislation, as well as recession difficulties and changes in compensation, have made healthcare a less attractive option as a career path for the younger generations. These political and economic issues are occurring at the same time that a large number of nurses are hitting retirement age. This has made many U.S. healthcare facilities scramble to provide appropriate staffing levels for their patients. The fourth important trend is an increasing outsourcing of staffing services as a response to the decrease in staffing.

INTERNATIONAL VS. DOMESTIC

Global Source Healthcare (GSH) should enter both the international and domestic markets. Having a group of domestic nurses would allow them to start placing nurses quickly as their international nurses were processed into the country and to offset the expensive upfront investment costs of creating a pool of international nurses. Conversely, the upfront costs for domestic nurses are much lower, and even though they are tapping the same market as many other companies, having a small percentage of their nurses from the continental United States could make GSH’s start up much smoother considering its current minimal capital; solely investing in the international market would...