Healthcare organizations have lived with staffing shortages for so long that it often feels like part of the job. Vacant roles drag on for weeks, agency spend continues to climb, and many leaders are left balancing clinical gaps with financial pressure. For years, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) offered a level of relief by consolidating vendors, improving compliance, and standardizing processes. But as the workforce becomes more dynamic and more specialized, MSP-only strategies are showing their limits.
Today, more hospitals and health systems are pairing their MSP with a second engine: a Contingent Talent Marketplace (CTM). This approach introduces transparency, faster fill times, direct access to clinicians, and control over the contingent pipeline, something traditional MSP models cannot offer.
Here’s why the combination is becoming the modern staffing blueprint.
1. Managed Service Providers Bring Efficiency, But Limited Specialization
MSPs excel at centralizing vendor management and simplifying complex hiring operations. However, most operate across multiple industries, meaning their healthcare specialization can be shallow especially for outpatient, nonclinical, or niche clinical roles.
A CTM fills that gap by stocking your marketplace with nurses, allied health professionals, locum tenens, and nonclinical talent drawn from both your internal ecosystem (ATS, alumni, referrals) and external networks.
- Your MSP provides structure.
- Your CTM provides specialization.
2. A CTM Gives You Ownership of Your Pipeline
One of the biggest frustrations leaders cite with vendor-heavy models is the lack of control:
- No visibility into markups
- No ownership of candidate data
- No direct connection with talent
- No long-term talent pipeline
A CTM reverses that dynamic. With SkillGigs CTM, your team owns:
- Your brand
- Your data
- Your candidate pool
- Your marketplace activity
You’re no longer borrowing someone else’s talent network, you’re building your own.
3. Faster Time-to-Fill: From 11 Weeks Down to 5–6
Traditional MSP-led processes often stretch to 10–11 weeks due to vendor loops and layered approvals.
In a CTM, clinicians engage directly with your marketplace, allowing:
- Direct bidding
- Role transparency
- Real-time availability
- AI-supported matching
- Rapid redeployment of proven talent
This shortens fill times to 5–6 weeks, reducing overtime, burnout, and temporary travel spend.
“Your workforce shouldn’t depend on vendors. With SkillGigs CTM, you get a branded marketplace, transparent rates, and a pipeline your team owns, all while reducing agency reliance by up to 80%.
Discover how CTM transforms staffing.“
4. Transparency Reduces Overspending
Vendor opacity is a recurring issue in MSP-only environments, especially when bill rates spike during census surges or travel demand.
CTMs introduce:
- Clear, direct rates
- CFO-ready reporting
- Visibility into every bid
- Transparent clinician pay
Healthcare leaders gain a level of financial clarity that traditional MSPs simply weren’t built for.
5. CTMs Strengthen Local & Long-Term Staffing
Advanced marketplaces allow health systems to tap into:
- Local nurses
- Regional per-diem clinicians
- Allied health professionals
- Retired/returning workers
- Internal alumni networks
This creates a living pipeline that supports full-time hiring and reduces reliance on high-cost travel talent. And unlike agency-owned talent pools, this one belongs entirely to your organization.
6. MSPs Can’t Always Adapt to Rapid, Department-Specific Needs
Outpatient clinics, imaging centers, specialty practices, and urgent care units require agility — often making hiring decisions within days.
MSPs, built for scale, are often built on standardized processes that can feel slow or rigid.
CTMs are built for speed. They empower:
- Rapid backfills
- Auto-extensions
- Priority redeployment
- Immediate clinician engagement
- Real-time marketplace activity
It’s the kind of responsiveness outpatient and high-volume departments need.
7. MSP + CTM Creates a Stronger, More Balanced Workforce Model
This isn’t about replacing a Managed Service Providers. It’s about strengthening one.
A CTM sits alongside your MSP and unlocks:
- Specialized roles MSPs struggle with
- Local talent your vendors don’t have
- Transparent cost structures
- Faster time-to-fill
- Lower long-term spend
- Reduced agency dependency
The result:
- A more predictable workforce.
- Lower volatility.
- Better patient care.
- And a hiring strategy you control, not one controlled for you.
CTM: The Future of Healthcare Staffing
In short, CTM is the future of healthcare staffing as it makes the job easier for all of the stakeholders. Take control of your contingent clinical workforce. See how SkillGigs CTM helps health systems cut fill times from 11 weeks to 5–6, reduce spend, and build an owned talent pipeline.
