Group Purchasing Organization for Staffing Needs Now Available 

Situation Report | October 13, 2020

As we reported in late August, New York City Office of Emergency Management (NYC OEM) has set up a Medical Surge Staffing Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to assist health care facilities and organizations with their COVID-19 surge staffing plans.

The most current list of participating staffing vendors and additional documents (i.e., program overview, FAQs, sample master agreement) can be found here under “COVID-19 Surge Staffing Group Purchasing Organization (GPO).”

Some of the available staff include RNs, LPNs, respiratory therapists, certified nursing assistants, MDs, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and others. While home care aides are not included, agencies creating a contract can choose to include other staffing specialties as needed for their agency, outside the already identified specialties.

Each facility and/or organization is responsible for creating their own contract with appropriate staffing vendor(s) utilizing the base terms in the master agreement. Facilities and organizations are encouraged to create a contract with the staffing vendors before future waves of COVID-19 and these contracts can also be utilized for any staffing shortages through June of 2021.

In addition to preparing for COVID-19 resurgence, NYC OEM also stresses that the GPO creates and maintains competitive pay scales to prevent rate inflation and it ensures contract terms have appropriate flexibilities for health care facilities and organizations.

Questions can be addressed to HealthMedicalESFList@OEM.NYC.GOV.