Leading Healthcare Staffing Agencies in New York: What Employers Should Know

New York's healthcare staffing market is large and fragmented, ranging from national firms with thousands of clinicians on their books to regional agencies that know a handful of NYC health systems inside and out. For hospital and clinic leaders evaluating a staffing partner, the right fit usually comes down to specialty depth, how well an agency handles New York's non-compact licensing requirements, and how quickly they can actually get a credentialed nurse or clinician into a shift.

What to look for in a New York healthcare staffing partner

Before comparing specific firms, a few things matter more in New York than in most other markets. Because New York isn't part of the Nurse Licensure Compact, an agency's ability to manage licensing and credentialing efficiently matters more here than it does in states where a compact license covers most hiring needs. Accreditation, such as Joint Commission certification, is also a reasonable signal of process maturity. And specialty depth varies a lot between firms, some are built around acute care and travel nursing, others lean into allied health, school nursing, or executive placement, so the best fit depends on what kind of roles a facility is actually trying to fill.

Agencies operating in the New York market

AMN Healthcare is one of the largest healthcare staffing companies in the country, with broad reach across nursing, allied health, and locum tenens placements. For health systems managing staffing across multiple New York locations or scaling quickly, AMN's national infrastructure is a relevant factor, though that scale can come with less of the high-touch, single-point-of-contact experience smaller firms offer.

TemPositions Health Care, part of the New York-based TemPositions Group of Companies, focuses specifically on clinical staffing including RNs, EMTs, and lab techs, with a long-standing presence in the NYC market. Their regional roots mean deep familiarity with the city's hospital systems specifically, rather than a one-size-fits-all national approach.

Green Key staffs across both healthcare and life sciences, which gives it a slightly different lens, useful for organizations that need clinical staff alongside research or lab-adjacent roles, from outpatient clinics to research-driven hospitals.

Medix and Supplemental Health Care both operate nationally with a meaningful New York presence, generally positioned toward larger health systems that need consistent staffing volume across nursing and allied health categories.

ProMed Staffing Resources and several other NYC-based firms, including Horizon Healthcare Staffing and TAG MedStaffing's New York division, serve the market with a more regional, relationship-driven model, often built around long-term recruiter relationships with individual clinicians rather than pure platform-based matching.

Where DirectShifts fits

DirectShifts approaches New York staffing differently from most of the firms above: rather than relying purely on recruiter outreach, employers and clinicians connect directly on the platform, which tends to compress time-to-fill on roles where speed matters. DirectShifts' credentialing team handles the licensing process for nurses who aren't yet New York-licensed, which is a meaningful differentiator given how much New York's non-compact status affects hiring timelines. For employers comparing options, the practical question is usually less "which agency is biggest" and more "which one actually reduces the licensing and credentialing friction specific to New York."

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a national staffing agency and a regional New York agency?

‍National agencies like AMN typically offer broader specialty coverage and the infrastructure to staff across multiple states or locations at once. Regional New York agencies tend to have deeper relationships within specific NYC health systems and may offer more individualized service, though often with less geographic reach beyond the immediate market.

Why does New York's non-compact status matter when choosing a staffing agency?

‍Since New York isn't part of the Nurse Licensure Compact, every out-of-state nurse needs an individual New York license before starting work. An agency's ability to manage that licensing process efficiently, rather than treating it as the clinician's problem, directly affects how fast a role actually gets filled.

Should employers use more than one staffing agency?

‍Many New York health systems do work with multiple agencies, particularly for high-volume or hard-to-fill specialties, though that approach adds vendor management overhead. The tradeoff is usually between broader candidate reach and the relationship depth that comes with concentrating volume with fewer partners.

Looking for a staffing partner that handles New York licensing as part of the placement, not as an extra step? Schedule a demo with DirectShifts