DirectShifts vs OpenLoop: Healthcare Staffing Platform Comparison (2026)
DirectShifts trusted by health systems and digital health leaders
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Directshifts vs Openloop at a Glance
What DirectShifts does that OpenLoop does not
Internal Resource Pool management
Healthcare-focused job board with 1M+ professional reach
Dedicated Applicant Tracking System
Shift scheduling and digital timesheets
Per-diem and locum tenens staffing for hospitals and health systems
What OpenLoop does that DirectShifts does not
White-label patient-facing telehealth platform (EHR, scheduling, eRx, booking)
Payer-coverage and RCM bundled into a single service
Async telehealth visit fulfillment
At a glance
DirectShifts
OpenLoop
Founded
2017
2020
Headquarters
New York, NY
Des Moines, IA
Primary buyer
Hospitals, health systems, ambulatory groups, telehealth companies
Digital health startups and virtual-first care brands
Clinician network
800,000+ vetted professionals
20,000+ clinicians
Coverage
All 50 states
All 50 states
Compliance
HIPAA-compliant, NCQA-aligned credentialing, automated verification
SOC 2 Type 1 (late 2024), NCQA-aligned
Pricing
Modular, demo-based
Bundled, demo-based
If you are a digital health startup launching a GLP-1 or behavioral health virtual brand from scratch and you need everything (clinicians, tech, billing, payers), OpenLoop's bundle is competitive. If you are anyone else (hospital, health system, ambulatory group, telehealth company that already has its own tech stack, or a multi-line business that mixes per-diem with telehealth), DirectShifts is built for you.
Detailed Comparison Table
Capability
DirectShifts
OpenLoop
Year founded
2017
2020
Primary model
Healthcare workforce platform
White-label telehealth infrastructure
Clinician network size
800,000+ professionals
20,000+ clinicians
Geographic coverage
All 50 states
All 50 states
Hospitals & health systems
Core ICP
Limited focus
Telehealth companies
Core ICP
Core ICP
Per-diem & locum tenens staffing
Yes
No
Permanent placement
Yes
No
Internal Resource Pool management
Yes
No
Multi-state clinician licensing
Yes
Yes (bundled)
Provider credentialing
Yes (standalone)
Yes (bundled)
Payer enrollment
Yes
No
White-label patient app / EHR
No
Yes
Healthcare ATS
Yes
No
Healthcare job board
Yes (1M+ reach)
No
Shift scheduling
Yes
Limited
Digital timesheets
Yes
No
RCM services
No
Yes
Lab and diagnostic integration
No
Yes
SOC 2 certification
HIPAA-compliant
SOC 2 Type 1 (2024)
Pricing transparency
Demo-based
Demo-based
What is DirectShifts?
DirectShifts is a healthcare workforce platform founded in 2017 by a team of physicians and operators. The company helps hospitals, health systems, ambulatory clinics, and telehealth companies source, license, credential, schedule, and manage clinical staff across the United States.
DirectShifts operates a marketplace of more than 800,000 vetted healthcare professionals — physicians, NPs, PAs, RNs, allied health, behavioral health, and therapists. The platform combines algorithmic matching, automated compliance verification, and dedicated account teams across per-diem, contract, locum tenens, permanent, and telehealth categories.
The product is modular. Clients include Mount Sinai South Nassau, ChenMed, Monument, and Grow Therapy.
What is OpenLoop?
OpenLoop is a white-label telehealth infrastructure company founded in 2020 by Dr. Jon Lensing in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers a modular platform combining clinician staffing, a patient-facing telehealth tech stack, payer coverage, RCM, licensing, credentialing, and care program support — pitched as "telehealth in a box."
OpenLoop reports a network of more than 20,000 state-licensed clinicians, supports over 600 insurance plans, and conducts roughly 250,000 visits per month across 30-plus specialties. It achieved SOC 2 Type 1 certification in late 2024.
Strongest fit: D2C telehealth brands in GLP-1, hormone therapy, behavioral health, and women's health. Weakest fit: organizations that already have their own EHR, patient app, payer relationships, or workforce systems.
Network Depth: 800,000 vs 20,000
This is the single largest gap between the two platforms.
DirectShifts
800,000+
Vetted professionals across physician specialties, APPs, nurses, behavioral health, and allied health. Sourced, screened, license-verified, and matched algorithmically based on specialty, geography, availability, and past performance.
OpenLoop
20,000+
A smaller pool of 1099 clinicians, primarily concentrated in telehealth-friendly specialties (primary care, weight management, behavioral health, hormone therapy, dermatology). Purpose-built for virtual care delivery.
For hospitals
Filling per-diem ED shifts, locum hospitalist gaps, or permanent nephrologists — DirectShifts has substantially more supply.
For digital health brands
Need 100 NPs licensed in 20 states for async GLP-1 visits? OpenLoop's smaller network is purpose-built for that workflow.
For multi-state telehealth
Scaling synchronous video care, DirectShifts covers both 1099 and W-2 models, while OpenLoop is heavily 1099.
Product Line Comparison
Both companies market a bundle. The bundles are built around different products. Here is what each one actually contains.
Healthcare staffing and sourcing
DirectShifts offers staffing and sourcing across per-diem, contract, permanent, and locum tenens — physicians, APPs, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, technicians, and support staff. OpenLoop offers provider staffing focused on telehealth roles only, primarily 1099 supplied to virtual-care clients.
DirectShifts is broader and serves both telehealth and acute-care employers. OpenLoop is narrower and serves telehealth employers only.
Telehealth staffing
DirectShifts helps digital health companies, virtual-first practices, and remote monitoring providers build teams across primary care, behavioral health, urgent care, chronic disease management, and specialty care — supporting both employed and contracted models. OpenLoop bundles telehealth staffing into its broader infrastructure offering.
If you already have a tech stack, DirectShifts' standalone model is faster to integrate. If you're starting from zero, OpenLoop's bundle has fewer moving parts.
Internal Resource Pool management
DirectShifts' IRP is a workforce-management system that helps hospitals and health systems redeploy their existing internal clinical staff before turning to outside agencies. Tracks staff availability, credentials, and shift preferences, then assigns and schedules dynamically. Published case studies show up to 89% shift fill rates.
OpenLoop has no equivalent product. If your goal is to reduce agency dependency, DirectShifts is the only option of the two that solves this.
Clinician licensing
Both offer multi-state clinician licensing. OpenLoop bundles it into its broader white-label package. DirectShifts offers provider licensing as a standalone service — application prep, board correspondence, primary source verification, and ongoing license management (renewals, CEU tracking, sanction alerts).
Both can license a panel across 30 states fast. If you don't want to commit to a vendor's white-label tech stack, DirectShifts is the cleaner choice.
Provider credentialing
DirectShifts runs credentialing as a standalone managed service combining dedicated teams and software, sold at less than the cost of one in-house FTE — primary source verification, NPDB queries, payer enrollment prep, sanctions monitoring, re-credentialing. OpenLoop offers credentialing only as part of its bundled package.
For organizations that already have a workforce platform and just need credentialing operations, DirectShifts is the more flexible buy.
Payer enrollment
DirectShifts offers payer enrollment as a managed service across commercial payers, Medicare, and Medicaid. OpenLoop reports a payer network covering 600+ insurance plans and around 250 million patient lives, provided as part of its bundled service.
If you need to plug into an existing payer network without building those relationships yourself, OpenLoop's bundled network is genuinely useful.
ATS and healthcare job board
DirectShifts operates a healthcare-specific Applicant Tracking System built for clinical hiring workflows — credentialing fields, license status, board certifications, malpractice history, shift preferences. Plus a healthcare-focused job board with reach to 1M+ qualified professionals. OpenLoop has neither product.
For any organization that wants to run its own clinical hiring funnel and brand its own job postings, DirectShifts is the only option.
Shift scheduling and digital timesheets
DirectShifts offers shift scheduling and digital timesheets as part of its workforce-management suite — per-diem shift posting, clinician acceptance, credential status checks, approval workflows, and payroll integration. OpenLoop handles scheduling for telehealth appointments only.
For health systems centralizing shift scheduling across multiple departments, DirectShifts is the only option.
White-label telehealth platform
OpenLoop's technology platform is a white-label, telehealth-optimized EHR and patient experience layer — appointment booking, registration, async messaging, eRx, payment collection, package purchasing. A digital health brand can launch on OpenLoop's stack under their own brand. DirectShifts does not sell a patient-facing telehealth application.
If you need a turnkey patient experience stack, OpenLoop is the better choice. If you already have your own application or EHR, OpenLoop's stack becomes redundant.
Features and Speed
Compliance and security
Both operate under HIPAA. OpenLoop achieved SOC 2 Type 1 in late 2024 — a point-in-time attestation that controls are designed correctly. SOC 2 Type 2, which audits operating effectiveness over 6–12 months, is the more rigorous standard most enterprise buyers expect. DirectShifts operates a HIPAA-compliant platform with an automated compliance engine that verifies licenses, certifications, and backgrounds at clinician onboarding. For enterprise buyers, ask both vendors for current SOC 2 reports, BAAs, penetration test summaries, and data residency documentation during procurement.
Speed and time-to-fill
Per-diem hospital shifts: DirectShifts is built for this — published case studies show shift-fill rates above 85% in safety-net hospitals. Multi-state telehealth licensing: both platforms move fast. Permanent direct-hire placements: DirectShifts has a dedicated recruitment practice; OpenLoop does not offer permanent placement. Async telehealth visit fulfillment: OpenLoop's panel is purpose-built for this.
Pricing and transparency
Neither company publishes pricing. Both quote on discovery calls. DirectShifts uses modular pricing — pay only for the products you use. A health system might buy IRP and credentialing without the ATS. OpenLoop uses bundle pricing — the white-label package is most economical when you use most components. If cost discipline is a procurement priority, ask both vendors for itemized line-item quotes rather than bundle pricing.
Best-Fit Use Cases
When DirectShifts is the right choice
You are a hospital or health system filling per-diem, locum, contract, or permanent roles.
You are a telehealth or digital health company that already has its own tech stack or EHR and needs a clinician supply, licensing, or credentialing partner.
You want to reduce agency spend by activating your internal bench through Internal Resource Pool management.
You need a healthcare-specific ATS and job board to run your own hiring funnel.
You want modular pricing and the ability to buy only the products you need.
You are scaling across multiple workforce categories (telehealth + on-site + permanent + per-diem).
When OpenLoop is the right choice
You are a digital health startup launching a virtual-first brand from zero and need clinicians, tech, payers, RCM, and compliance in a single bundle.
You do not want to build or buy a patient-facing application.
Your category is async-friendly (weight management, hormone therapy, dermatology, behavioral health) and OpenLoop's existing infrastructure maps cleanly to your model.
You value vendor consolidation more than modularity.
Customer Evidence and Trust Signals
DirectShifts publishes named case studies from clients including a large multi-hospital health system that centralized staffing across four departments, a Chicago safety-net hospital that achieved an 89% shift fill rate, and a leading health services company that built custom credentialing workflows on the platform. Public testimonials include partners like Mount Sinai South Nassau, Grow Therapy, ChenMed, and Monument.
OpenLoop publishes client logos primarily from D2C digital health brands across weight management, men's health, and behavioral health, reporting 120+ client partnerships and 1M+ cumulative patient visits. Independent review signals are mixed for both companies — OpenLoop's Glassdoor employee rating is 2.9 out of 5 with 39% recommending it, which procurement teams may want to factor into long-term partnership risk.
Directshifts vs Openloop: Clinician Perspective
This page is written for buyers, but a quick note on the clinician side because it affects supply quality.
DirectShifts maintains a clinician-facing job board with active postings from hospitals, health systems, ambulatory groups, and telehealth companies across the country. Clinicians can apply directly, manage credentials, and access multi-state licensing support.
OpenLoop hires clinicians primarily as 1099 contractors to staff its client panels. Public clinician reviews on Indeed and Glassdoor have flagged inconsistent training, frequent protocol changes, and contract instability. Clinician churn becomes client churn over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is DirectShifts an OpenLoop alternative?
Yes. DirectShifts is a credible alternative to OpenLoop for clinician staffing, multi-state licensing, credentialing, and telehealth workforce scaling. The two overlap in clinician supply, licensing, and credentialing. DirectShifts is the better fit when you already have a patient-facing tech stack, when you need per-diem or hospital staffing, or when you want modular pricing. OpenLoop is the better fit when you need a bundled white-label telehealth platform with payer coverage and clinicians in a single package.
What is the difference between DirectShifts and OpenLoop?
DirectShifts is a healthcare workforce platform that helps employers hire, license, credential, schedule, and manage clinicians. OpenLoop is a white-label telehealth infrastructure platform that helps brands launch and run virtual-first care services. DirectShifts focuses on the employer's workforce operations. OpenLoop focuses on the end-to-end telehealth delivery stack.
Which has a larger clinician network, DirectShifts or OpenLoop?
DirectShifts. The marketplace has more than 800,000 vetted healthcare professionals across physicians, APPs, nurses, behavioral health, and allied health roles. OpenLoop reports a clinician network of approximately 20,000, concentrated in telehealth specialties.
Does DirectShifts offer telehealth staffing?
Yes. DirectShifts operates a dedicated telehealth staffing practice that helps digital health companies, virtual-first practices, and remote monitoring providers scale clinician panels across primary care, behavioral health, urgent care, and specialty care. Clinicians can be engaged as employed staff, contractors, or moonlighting providers.
Does OpenLoop work with hospitals and health systems?
OpenLoop's customer base is primarily digital health startups and virtual-first care brands. It can support hospital telehealth programs but does not offer per-diem hospital staffing, locum tenens, or internal resource pool management. For acute-care workforce needs, DirectShifts is the more relevant platform.
Is DirectShifts HIPAA compliant?
Yes. The DirectShifts platform is HIPAA-compliant and operates an automated compliance engine that verifies licenses, certifications, and backgrounds during clinician onboarding. Buyers in enterprise procurement should request current BAA documentation and security attestations directly from the DirectShifts team during evaluation.
What is an Internal Resource Pool and does OpenLoop offer one?
An Internal Resource Pool is a workforce-management system that helps hospitals and health systems redeploy their existing internal clinical staff to fill open shifts before relying on external agencies. DirectShifts offers an IRP product with shift posting, credential tracking, dynamic scheduling, and a savings calculator. OpenLoop does not offer an equivalent product.
Can I buy just licensing or just credentialing from DirectShifts?
Yes. DirectShifts sells licensing, credentialing, license monitoring, and payer enrollment as standalone managed services. You can use any one of them without committing to staffing or other modules.
How does pricing compare between DirectShifts and OpenLoop?
Neither company publishes pricing publicly. Both share pricing during a discovery call. DirectShifts uses modular pricing where each product line is priced separately, suiting organizations that want specific capabilities. OpenLoop uses bundled pricing built around its full white-label package, suiting organizations using most of the bundle's components.
What types of clinicians can I hire through DirectShifts?
Physicians (all specialties), nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, behavioral health clinicians, therapists, medical assistants, pharmacists, technicians, and allied health professionals — across per-diem, contract, locum tenens, telehealth, and permanent roles.
Make an Informed Decision
Both DirectShifts and OpenLoop solve real problems. They just solve different ones. If you are running a hospital, health system, ambulatory group, or any organization that needs flexible workforce infrastructure across per-diem, contract, telehealth, and permanent roles, book a DirectShifts demo and we will walk you through how the platform fits your specific environment.
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