Ro Health

Ro Health

• Rank: 2
• Headquarters: Seattle
• Top staffing segment(s) served –  Per diem nursing
• 2019 US staffing revenue – $18.3 million
• Compound annual growth rate – 65.1%
• Website: rohealth.com

One of the keys to growth at Ro Health is taking care of providers, the term it uses for the clinical staff it places at client companies.

“What has always been one of our founding principles is if we take great care of providers, we’re going to have success,” says Josh McIntosh, national director of operations.

The idea is that, in turn, the providers will take great care of the patients that they serve and make the clients happy - and that will prompt more growth.

Seattle-based Ro Health supplies per diem nursing and mental health professionals to schools, private duty nursing, public health departments, correctional facilities and long-term care facilities. It offers its providers a benefits package for anyone who works more than 30 hours per week. It also offers a 401(k) plan with a 4% employer match to all employees in their first year.

In addition to these benefits, the company works hard to take care of providers - including coaching them and making sure they are well prepared when it comes to their assignments. They are not just handed out assignment addresses and shifts - nurses are completely prepped for their assignments, with details such as where they are going to check in, whom they can turn to for help, who might be the grumpy nurse on the shift, what the dress code is and where to get time cards signed.

“It helps our providers show up more confident, more prepared and in a better position to make that first impression,” McIntosh says. “It can really be make or break on that first shift.”

Ro Health CEO Jeff Widmyer puts it similarly: “It’s those little things that can go unsaid and can lead to provider frustrations.” The executives also cite the company’s strong partnerships with clients, its work with support staff and its tenure for internal staff. Widmyer notes that it puts a lot of resources into assisting its managers and has lost only two managers in the past five years. Ro Health has had great growth, and right now it is stepping up to the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the majority of its markets, the primary clients were schools, and Widmyer notes that on March 16, when the schools closed, it was a scary day. The company responded by ramping up communications while its support staff moved to work from their homes.

McIntosh noted the company set up meetings each day to discuss priorities and initiatives as well as to drive hope. It turns out that tenured employees have had success working from home, and the company is giving them flexibility to get things done.

In addition, Ro Health is working with clients to help them prepare for when on-site classroom learning returns. It’s also diversifying its service offerings. For example, it is working with facilities in the long-term care business as well as providing private duty care nurses.

“This pandemic, as painful as it was, it has forced us to diversify,” Widmyer says. “I’m confident we are going to come out of it as a stronger company and able to grow in a more diverse manner.”