HealthStream partners with Tennessee to onboard additional medical professionals fighting COVID-19

Tennessee has begun a partnership with HealthStream Inc., a Nashville-based publicly traded company focused on workforce development and management in the health care sector, to help onboard additional medical professionals responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

HealthStream will provide quick and free training to retired or furloughed medical workers willing to rejoin the workforce to fight the virus. The additional professionals will help patients in alternative health care facilities being established in anticipation of a coronavirus surge in Tennessee. 

"Their generous offer to make training resources free to these professionals, to the volunteers and to returning health care workers that will be staffing the alternative health care facilities will ensure high-quality care is delivered to patients in Tennessee during the surge," Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday. 

In March, Lee issued an executive order that loosens restrictions around retired medical professionals so they can help with the COVID-19 crisis and has called on Tennesseans to join or rejoin the health care ranks. More than 800 health care professionals have reached out to volunteer, Lee said. 

HealthStream, led by CEO Robert Frist Jr., helps health care providers onboard staff more effectively to reduce turnover and provides services to 80% of hospitals nationwide. The company will provide its learning platform with relevant courses on COVID-19, infection control and other clinical skills training.

"The public-private partnerships is where we can make a huge difference in our preparedness for this virus," Frist said. 

Frist, who is the nephew of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, said HealthStream can provide its platform to other interested states, and he offered his personal email (robert.frist@healthstream.com) to other governors and public health officials. 

"HealthStream is in a position through our pilot program in the state of Tennessee to extend the program out to all other 49 states who may need it to prepare for surge training," Frist said. "We'll put a team on it and figure out how to provision these services to you when you do surge planning."

HealthStream, formed in 1990, employs more than 850 people and generates more than $254 million in annual revenue. The company has offices in New York; Denver and Boulder, Colorado; San Diego; and Chicago. 

More than 4,300 Tennesseans have contracted the coronavirus, which has overwhelmed hospitals in heavily infected areas around the country. The demand for specialized nurses has increased significantly, with Vanderbilt University Medical Center recruiting nurses with high salary offers.

As COVID-19 spreads across the country, ICU and ER nurses are in greatest demand. VUMC last week set up a "manpower command center" to recruit nurses and nursing students. At Ascension Saint Thomas, officials are also recruiting temporary and full-time workers, spokeswoman Michelle Heard said.

Hospitals in New York City are paying $10,327.80 per week in addition to travel and housing stipends for ICU nurses willing to work immediately, according to NuWest Travel Nursing.

Lee encouraged other health care workers in Tennessee to sign up online to help fight the virus at the Tennessee Department of Health's website. 

Under Lee's executive order loosening restrictions on medical professionals, the health department no longer needs to interview or test a doctor who comes out of retirement to fight the virus. The department may also waive inspections of medical labs so they can “immediately” begin virus testing.

Additionally, the agency is permitted to skip some of its normal duties: It is no longer required to investigate complaints about medical professionals or inspect pharmacies or nursing homes if they open in a location where a similar facility operated in the past month.

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-310-1873 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.