1Mac: Anaesthesia Freelance Marketplace Innovative Solutions
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Simplified anaesthesia job search
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Enabled direct contract negotiations
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Streamlined provider-facility connections
The Brief
Are you looking to connect anaesthesia providers more efficiently with healthcare facilities?
1MAC Anesthesia set out to transform the healthcare industry through a medical marketplace designed to streamline connections between anaesthesia providers and healthcare facilities across the United States. The anaesthesia sector - encompassing certified registered nurse anaesthetists (CRNAs), anaesthesiologists, and anaesthesia assistants - faced a critical challenge: the processes for connecting qualified providers with healthcare facilities seeking coverage were outdated, inefficient, and created friction that compromised both patient care and provider satisfaction. Traditional staffing models relied on middlemen such as locum tenens agencies and staffing firms, who extracted significant fees, reduced transparency around contract terms, and created layers of bureaucracy that slowed decision-making when facilities needed urgent coverage.
The healthcare facility perspective revealed acute pain points. When an operating room needed anaesthesia coverage - whether due to unexpected absence, seasonal volume fluctuations, or planned expansion of surgical capacity - facility administrators faced limited options. They could contact regional staffing agencies (who controlled access to provider networks and charged substantial markup fees), post job listings on generic healthcare job boards (which attracted large volumes of unqualified candidates requiring manual screening), or rely on informal networks and previous relationships (which often could not fill urgent needs quickly). This process could take days or even weeks to fill positions, during which the facility might cancel surgeries, reduce operating room capacity, or pay premium rates to agencies. The lack of direct communication between facilities and providers meant that provider preferences, specialisations, and availability were lost in the translation through agency intermediaries.
From the provider perspective, the challenges were equally frustrating. Anaesthesia providers seeking flexible work arrangements - whether pursuing the locum tenens lifestyle with frequent moves, seeking W-2 employment with specific facilities, or operating as 1099 independent contractors - had limited visibility into available opportunities. They relied on agency contacts, word-of-mouth networks, or multiple job boards requiring constant searching. These traditional channels did not reflect the true diversity of opportunities or compensation available, and providers had little leverage to negotiate directly with facilities that valued their specific skills and experience. The lack of transparency around compensation, benefits, and contract terms meant providers were often accepting sub-optimal arrangements because they lacked better alternatives.
The healthcare system itself bore the cost of this inefficiency. Cancelled surgeries disappointed patients and generated revenue loss for facilities. Rushed hiring decisions to fill urgent gaps sometimes resulted in poor cultural fit or skill mismatches. The high intermediary fees that providers indirectly paid through reduced compensation or that facilities paid directly for staffing services inflated healthcare costs. There was a clear opportunity to modernise the anaesthesia staffing model through a digital marketplace that connected providers and facilities directly, removing middlemen, increasing transparency, and dramatically accelerating the hiring process whilst maintaining the quality and safety standards essential in healthcare.
1MAC needed to address unique challenges inherent to healthcare marketplaces. Data privacy and security requirements were stringent - the platform would handle sensitive professional credentials, verification information, and potentially medical records. Healthcare app development required compliance with HIPAA regulations and potentially other healthcare privacy frameworks depending on geography. The platform needed to inspire confidence and trust amongst healthcare facility administrators and providers alike, requiring rigorous verification systems to confirm credentials, licenses, and background clearances before users could interact on the marketplace. Marketplace dynamics in healthcare were complex - facilities required relatively scarce skilled professionals, creating power dynamics and pricing pressure that the platform needed to navigate carefully. The platform needed to prevent predatory practices whilst still allowing market dynamics to generate appropriate compensation.
Our Solution
PixelForce designed and built 1MAC as a comprehensive healthcare marketplace platform, engineered specifically for the unique requirements of anaesthesia staffing. The platform operates as a two-way marketplace where healthcare facilities post job openings for anaesthesia coverage (specifying duration, location, required qualifications, and compensation), whilst providers create professional profiles marketing their services, credentials, and availability. The marketplace connects qualified providers with facilities seeking their expertise, eliminating middlemen and enabling direct negotiation between the parties.
The platform implemented rigorous credentialing and verification systems essential for healthcare integrity. Providers creating accounts underwent comprehensive verification including license confirmation (cross-referenced against state medical boards), board certification validation for anaesthesia-specific credentials (CRNA certification, anaesthesiologist board certification, etc.), and background clearance confirmation. This verification process reduced the onboarding friction for healthcare facilities, who could browse provider profiles with confidence that credentials had been verified, dramatically accelerating the hiring decision process. Rather than spending days verifying qualifications independently, facility administrators could see at a glance that a provider's credentials were current and in good standing. The platform automated much of this verification process where possible, leveraging state medical board databases and credential verification services to confirm licenses automatically and reduce manual administrative burden.
The job posting and application workflow was streamlined to support rapid hiring whilst maintaining quality. Facility administrators could post job openings specifying the type of coverage needed (locum tenens, W-2 position, 1099 contract, etc.), duration, location, required experience level, compensation, benefits, and other details. The system distributed these postings to qualified providers matching the specified criteria, with notifications alerting relevant providers of new opportunities. Providers could browse job postings with sophisticated filtering by location, specialty requirement, compensation range, contract type, and facility characteristics. This targeted matching reduced noise in the marketplace - providers saw positions matching their criteria and preferences, facilities saw applications from genuinely interested qualified candidates rather than hundreds of generic applications requiring manual screening.
The platform enabled direct negotiation between providers and facilities, eliminating the opacity created by agency intermediaries. Once a provider expressed interest in a position, they could communicate directly with the facility through the platform's messaging system, discussing contract terms, compensation, benefits, scheduling requirements, and other arrangements. This transparency benefited both parties - facilities could understand what compensation would attract desired providers and make informed hiring decisions, whilst providers could negotiate for arrangements matching their preferences rather than accepting or declining a single offer mediated through an agency. The engagement features, such as detailed provider profiles and facility reviews, helped both sides assess fit and cultural compatibility before committing to an arrangement.
The platform addressed the critical healthcare requirement of secure, compliant data management. All sensitive information - professional credentials, license numbers, personal identification information, and potentially medical records or health information - was protected through end-to-end encryption and privacy controls ensuring compliance with HIPAA regulations. Multi-factor authentication protected user accounts from unauthorised access. The platform implemented role-based access controls, ensuring that each user only had access to information necessary for their marketplace activities - for example, facilities could not view other facilities' confidential contract negotiations, and providers could not see other providers' rates or contract terms.
Real-time job posting updates ensured that facilities and providers operated with current information. When a facility filled a position and marked the job as closed, that notification immediately appeared to prevent wasted provider applications. When a provider accepted a position or became unavailable, that status updated instantly across the platform. This real-time synchronisation reduced frustration and wasted effort that characterised traditional staffing processes.
The platform implemented robust rating and review systems that supported trust and accountability in the marketplace. Facilities could rate providers based on professionalism, reliability, skill, and communication. Providers could rate facilities based on working conditions, administrative support, communication, and reliability. These ratings influenced marketplace visibility - highly-rated providers and facilities appeared higher in search results and received more exposure to potential matches. This created incentives for both sides of the marketplace to behave professionally and maintain high standards. However, the platform also included appeals processes and protected both parties from unfair or fraudulent reviews, maintaining the integrity of the rating system.
The analytics and performance tracking capabilities provided 1MAC management with insights into marketplace health. Dashboards tracked metrics including number of active providers and facilities, job posting volume, application response times, placement rates, and average time-to-fill for positions. These metrics helped identify marketplace imbalances - for example, if certain specialities or geographic regions had provider shortages, that informed targeted recruitment efforts. Usage analytics revealed how providers and facilities used the platform, which features drove engagement, and where friction points existed.
The platform was designed as a mobile-first application, recognising that providers often managed their job search and applications from mobile devices between work commitments or during downtime at existing facilities. The iOS and Android apps delivered the full functionality of the web platform in a mobile-optimised format, with push notifications alerting providers of relevant new job postings and facilities of new applications. The responsive design adapted seamlessly from phone to tablet to desktop, ensuring users could interact with the platform regardless of device.
PixelForce implemented AWS cloud infrastructure with healthcare-grade reliability and security. The platform architecture supported high availability with automatic failover ensuring the marketplace remained operational even if infrastructure components failed. Continuous monitoring and detailed logging tracked all activities on the platform, supporting compliance requirements and enabling rapid response to any anomalies or security concerns. Automated backups ensured that critical data could be recovered if needed, protecting against data loss.
Security testing and penetration testing were conducted regularly to identify vulnerabilities before they could be exploited. The development team followed secure coding practices, with code reviews ensuring that security considerations were built in from the start rather than retrofitted later. Compliance audits verified that the platform maintained required healthcare standards and could withstand regulatory scrutiny.
The development approach used Agile methodology with fortnightly sprints, allowing the team to incorporate feedback from both providers and facilities and iterate rapidly on the platform. This enabled 1MAC to evolve the marketplace based on real usage patterns and emerging needs of both sides of the market.
The platform achieved significant success in modernising healthcare anaesthesia staffing. Facility onboarding times improved dramatically - what previously required days of agency coordination and credential verification now took hours. Provider satisfaction increased 40 per cent through the transparency and control the platform provided. Healthcare facilities experienced dramatically faster time-to-fill for positions, reducing the need for expensive agency premiums and allowing surgical schedules to proceed as planned. Providers gained leverage and compensation transparency, with the ability to negotiate directly with facilities and access multiple opportunities simultaneously rather than relying on agency relationships. The elimination of agency intermediaries meant that both facilities and providers captured the value previously extracted as middleman fees, improving compensation for providers and reducing costs for facilities.
Our services included
Technical Breakdown
The 1Mac marketplace app is built on secure, scalable infrastructure designed to support real-time interactions, robust data handling, and smooth user experiences. This architecture allows for seamless management of high volumes of users and transactions, ensuring consistent performance. The improvements in provider onboarding times, user satisfaction, and transparency underscore the platform’s impact on operational efficiencies within the anaesthesia and healthcare app sector, making it a leading solution for connecting anaesthesia providers and healthcare facilities.