Krucial Staffing Aids the Fight Against COVID in Hard-Hit Communities With AlertMedia

“The communication platform we used prior to AlertMedia had a lot of limitations. We could only send messages over text and there was no way to ensure our people actually received the message.”

At Krucial Staffing, the ability to appropriately match and rapidly deploy workers to short-term, temporary assignments in support of disaster relief and recovery efforts is central to the organization’s business model. But with thousands of medical professionals across the U.S. that have signed up as reservists for Krucial Staffing—coupled with the fluid and rapidly evolving nature of emergencies—communication can be a challenge.

Prior to AlertMedia, Krucial Staffing used a standalone text messaging solution to communicate critical information to its reservists, but the organization soon realized the constraints of the platform. “The communication platform we used prior to AlertMedia had a lot of limitations. We could only send messages over text and there was no way to ensure our people actually received the message,” says Brian Cleary, CEO of Krucial Staffing. “We knew we needed a more robust communication solution given the type and severity of disasters we respond to.”

Following a critical event like a natural disaster or disease outbreak, the speed of emergency response has a direct impact on health and safety outcomes. But since the interest and availability of Krucial Staffing’s reservists can change at any time, matching the right workers to new deployment opportunities was a manual, time-consuming process. Adds Cleary, “To get healthcare workers to the front lines faster, we needed a more efficient way to identify which reservists were interested in any given deployment opportunity.”

For reservists that were traveling or had already reached their assigned deployment location, Krucial Staffing also needed to be able to communicate time-sensitive announcements and logistics details to ensure worker safety, well-being, and preparedness. From confirming workers had personal protective equipment (PPE) to sharing important payroll information, Krucial Staffing needed to ensure the right messages got to the right people, at the right time.

“Healthcare workers aren’t in front of their email all day. The ability to send a targeted message across multiple communication channels increases the likelihood that a message will be received and acted upon quickly.”

Particularly valuable to Krucial Staffing are AlertMedia’s audience communication features, which include two-way messaging, surveys, and read receipt confirmations. Using the system’s survey functionality, for example, Krucial Staffing can rapidly see which workers are available for any given assignment. “Survey notifications help us get real-time insights into staff availability. This helps us work more efficiently and reduce the administrative burden of staff scheduling, which is fundamental to rapid emergency response.”

“With our previous, one-way text messaging solution, it was the equivalent of sending a message into a black hole and hoping our staff received the message. With AlertMedia’s read receipts, we can quickly verify who got the message and who needs a nudge,” says Cleary. To this end, the AlertMedia platform can also automatically resend any notification to only those workers who didn’t read or respond to the first message. “We have a million moving pieces and operate in rapidly evolving emergency situations, so the message verification function has been a simple but effective way for us to ensure we’re all on the same page.”

Given the geographically dispersed nature of Krucial Staffing’s workforce, the intuitive design of AlertMedia has also been instrumental to the successful implementation and adoption of the platform. “AlertMedia is so easy to get up and running with hardly any end-user training. Anybody, regardless of technical expertise, can navigate and use the system with ease,” Cleary adds.

“While we hadn’t anticipated a pandemic when we purchased AlertMedia, the system allows us to ensure we are always ready to respond swiftly and effectively to any type of emergency our country may face.”

When the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. in March 2020, Krucial Staffing had already implemented the AlertMedia platform across the organization and was able to rapidly start using it to coordinate its COVID-19 response efforts. “While we hadn’t anticipated a pandemic when we purchased AlertMedia, the system allows us to ensure we are always ready to respond swiftly and effectively to any type of emergency our country may face.”

Krucial Staffing has relied on AlertMedia during the pandemic to streamline operations and manage the complex logistics involved with getting nurses and other healthcare workers to COVID-19 hotspots. With AlertMedia’s survey functionality, the organization was able to efficiently match available reservists to assignments in New York—one of the epicenters of the pandemic in the U.S.—at healthcare facilities needing additional staff to manage the influx of COVID-19 patients.

Using AlertMedia, Krucial Staffing was also able to communicate important announcements and travel details, such as how assigned reservists could book their free flight donated by JetBlue or receive free meals being donated to healthcare workers by a number of different organizations. With nurses spread across various hotels in the New York City area, Krucial Staffing also used AlertMedia to share the daily shuttle schedule to and from local hospitals and the hotel. To enhance staff well-being, the organization even used the system to provide mindfulness and meditation resources to nurses to help them cope with the stress and strain of responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

“AlertMedia has contributed greatly to Krucial Staffing’s success during the pandemic. When the pandemic first hit, we already had the strong backbone of AlertMedia in place to quickly assemble and get real-time data on our staff deployments,” says Cleary. “From allowing us to easily coordinate scheduling availability to deploying healthcare workers to COVID-19 hotspots, AlertMedia really came to our rescue and made it easy for us to help those in need during a chaotic time.”