In late 2004 and early 2005, Direct Source HealthCare was grappling with how we were going to deal with the recent and disturbing EB-3 retrogression problem which had the potential, if unsolved, of totally destroying our U.S. Nursing business.
We had already joined the Coalition of interested parties to try to solve the problem. By joining, I mean we contributed funds (lobbyists do not work for free) and promised to have people available to work the problem as the strategy and actions needed were defined.
We began issuing our Client and RN Advisories. The 1st ones were written and distributed in early December 2004. We made appointments to meet with our Clients, face to face, to explain how and why the problem occurred, what the Coalition strategy was for fixing it, and basically urged everyone to not give up on the notion of foreign recruitment. These personal meetings were important in reassuring our Clients that everything in our power would be done to fix the problem, to give the Clients the opportunity to ask questions, and to let them know that their help would be needed down the road once we began getting instructions from our lobbyists as to which politicians needed to be contacted.
These personal meetings were very important in keeping our Clients with us during this period of uncertainty.
We felt the same sort of personal touch needed to happen with our Nurses. The news reports, as new reports can be, were awful. All the reports were basically saying it could be up to 3 years before a nurse from India, the Philippines or Mainland China would be able to enter the U.S. There were almost no reports of actions that were being taken to fix the problem.
So, CEO, John Haines and COO, Pat Kerrigan flew to Manila to meet with our Nurses. Here are some of the pictures taken at those meetings. Even though we knew we were months away from a solution, it felt good to meet our people face-to-face to answer any and all questions they had head on.
It took a few months than we would have liked, but EB-3 retrogression for nurses is solved. We look forward to the flow of RNs to the U.S. to resume. Likewise, we look forward to our placement activity to increase. Although we did not lose any Clients during the process, it was tough to get new placements during this period of uncertainty.
Thanks to all of you, Clients and Nurses, who stuck with us during this trying time.