MILFORD, Iowa -- Just six months after moving the the Iowa Great Lakes region from Texas, Steve Heeg is beginning to settle into his new digs with a different perspective on medical staffing.
Like most other medical staffing firms, Heeg’s previous job with the healthcare division with a Colorado-based company saw him working with long-term nursing situations. In comparison, any of the nearly 4,000 nurses and other medical professionals who work regularly with GrapeTree might only work one or two shifts at a time to fill in for temporary short staffing situations and or or higher than normal patient counts.
That’s what he says makes GrapeTree ‘unique’, even though like most other firms it primarily works with nurses -- RNs, LPNs, CNAs -- and also with medical doctors as needed.
Grapetree’s territory currently extends to a nine-state region including Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, South Dakota, and Missouri. And part of Heeg’s master plan is to expand the GrapeTree service area, which he said has historically been to states adjacent to its coverage area at the time.
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“But now we are looking at other states, and looking at what defines success in Iowa, and how we can potentially map that to other states that have similar characteristics to Iowa -- population, facilities, staffing needs, and the number of nurses available," Heeg said. "There’s no one right answer to that -- but we are being more tactical as we progress.”
“Different communities in have different demographics that redefine needs for hospitals, long-term care facilities, and patients. We’re putting a formula together and defining what success looks like in Iowa, then laying it over a map of other states. We’re really being intentional about where we’re going -- and maybe looking at additional data that wasn’t looked at when the company was just growing.
“This is an exciting time for GrapeTree. While the way GrapeTree is approaching the staffing business is somewhat atypical, that is a good thing.”
Referring to company founder Tim Kinnetz, who now serves as director/managing partner, Heeg explained, “What Tim created has not been without a lot of thought. He saw the appropriate need and helped define that need with the services that we offer."
“Tim customized a business that operates in a different manner than the typical staffing companies. We’re okay filling one or two shifts. We’re not trying to do long-term. Do we? Absolutely. Will we shy away from it? No. But our core business is to help facilities operate more efficiently by doing more per diem staffing.”
“GrapeTree is going to continue to do that because it serves a need in the industry as the census goes up and down, or there is a change in the workforce. It’s a very competitive area, and we all know there is a nursing shortage out there. We’re being more strategic and intentional with better learning curves under our belts to better reproduce success.”
“Success for GrapeTree means we have to continue to be unique, to continue to fill the gaps, the one-off shifts. We aren’t looking for the typical nurse. A lot of our nurses work for us as a suplement to their core job, taking one or two shifts on their days off, for instance, where a more typical staffing situation would involve a 40-hour week or several weeks or even months. We are often able to better help offset costs for hospital and other facilities costs because we allow an organization to have fewer full-time personnel.”
In his unique situation, Heeg sees his job as having three parts:
Heeg’s first goal is to help define processes internally, “to make sure we have the scaleability that GrapeTree is going to be facing -- and that I have been tasked with.”
His second step is to appropriately drive revenue.
Step three is to run a profitable business.
And, Heeg says, “There are close to 20 bullet points under each of those three items.”
What Heeg enjoys most about GrapeTree is the opportunities it will be providing for the 100 -- and soon to be up to 200 more -- office personnel and close to 4,000 active nurses as it expands. Several office staffers have already been promoted, he said. Two were recently in training as quality specialists, an area that didn’t exist until just recently. “With our growth we have a lot of career opportunities.”
The former Boji Bay event center will soon see the addition of a partial third floor, with no apparent change to the exterior design of the building. “With that third story being built, we should be able to sustain almost 300 people in that new office, which I think will allow use to grow for the next two to three years,” Heeg said.
