Cross Country Healthcare Inc. (NASD: CCRN) reported second-quarter revenue was essentially flat at $126.3 million, just 0.2 percent over year-ago revenue. The company cited a delay of significant contract and larger than anticipated increase in direct costs to the nurse and allied staffing business as reason for the revenue shortfall.

“Second quarter revenue was below expectations due in large part to the delay of a scheduled, large electronic medical record (EMR) implementation project, which had been fully staffed by us,” said Joseph Boshart, president and CEO. “In addition … our cost structure was too high relative to our revenue and we experienced a larger than anticipated increase in direct costs in our nurse and allied staffing business.”

The Boca Raton, Fla.-based healthcare staffing firm reported second-quarter revenue in its nurse and allied staffing division fell 1.0 percent on a year-over-year basis to $67.6 million, due primarily to lower staffing volume.

In other segments:

• Physician staffing revenue edged up 1.1 percent to $30.9 million in the second quarter. The company cited higher staffing volume for hospitalists and higher revenue per day filled.
• Clinical trial services revenue rose 5.7 percent in the second quarter to $17.4 million.
• Second-quarter revenue in other human capital management services fell 3.7 percent to $10.3 million. The other human capital management services segment includes education, training and retained search.

Second-quarter gross margin narrowed to 25.2 percent from 27.4 percent posted a year ago. The staffing firm posted a second-quarter net loss of $14.5 million compared to net income of $1.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

Cross Country reported a total debt of $36.2 million at the end of the second quarter.

The company forecast third-quarter revenue of between $126 million and $129 million, a year-over-year decrease of between 1.7 percent and 4.0 percent.

Cross Country Healthcare Inc. (NASD: CCRN)
 For the second quarter ended June 30, 2012, compared with the same period a year ago.
Revenue: $126.3 million, +0.2 percent
Net loss: $14.5 million vs. net income of $1.6 million