Bobwins - re: WHAI
I don't think a national footprint is that important. I think the biggest benefit of the national footprint is the traveling nurses. Relocations are not that common generally in staffing but the traveling nurses case is an exception. I think there are two reasons that people become traveling nurses. The first is that they are going to get paid more. The second is that they get to see the country on someone else's dime. This is where the national footprint comes in handy. If a recruiter is talking to a nurse and can offer her/him opportunities across the country instead of just at a few locations, the recruiter has a much higher probability of placing the individual.
Although I haven't researched this, my impression is that hospitals and clinics are mostly a regional entity. For most hospitals and clinics, the benefits of national scale are going to be access to a broader candidate pool. Even in cases where hospitals and clinics have a multi-state presence, the staffing firm likely is going to need to develop a relationship with each location. Staffing operations are usually run locally. That was the experience I had in the technology field.
One other thing regarding the comparables that I didn't think about is that location of operations probably matters. I'm sure the market for healthcare professionals is different nationwide. Firms may have different results depending upon their regional focus. On the other hand, just because you have offices in Maine for example, doesn't mean that you can't place people in California. That happens all the time. Almost all communication in the staffing industry is done with phones, e-mail, and fax. There isn't too much face-to-face communication. I didn't research the regional focus of the comparables so I don't know whether that is a factor or not in their performance.
Mike
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