Message from the President and CEO
In the past 12 months, we’ve made great strides in modernizing our operations, positioning CGFNS for sustainable growth, and expanding the impact of our global footprint – making 2023 one of the most transformative years in the history of the organization. We continue to press forward toward the goal of being a gateway to a world-class healthcare workforce through streamlined credentials verification and evaluation services, certification programs, and an expanding portfolio of skills assessment capabilities.
To that end, we have invested heavily in infrastructure transformation to streamline and digitize the application and review process for nurses and other health professionals seeking to migrate. As a result, the backlog in our credentials evaluation reports was reduced by nearly 40 percent, even with a record post-pandemic demand for our services. We also cut by half the time it takes to issue a credentials verification report and we now deliver VisaScreen® certificates digitally, which supports our goal of enabling faster, more secure career mobility for our applicants.
In addition, we have:
- Rebuilt our senior leadership team to drive design thinking and change management deeper into the business.
- Instituted project management platforms and processes to support better collaboration and business analytics.
- Deployed automation proficiencies to dramatically reshape the speed and accuracy of core CGFNS operations.
This vigilant operational efficiency and a commitment to improved service delivery has resulted in not only reduced backlogs and measurable customer satisfaction but also in revenue exceeding our 2023 projections. With a strong bottom line, we are reinvesting in health workforce capacity development and infrastructure to address the needs of a global health workforce that ensures improved population health management and patient safety.
Looking ahead, with nursing shortages likely to persist until the end of this decade, we know that it is critical for CGFNS to innovate in profound ways and to serve the global health workforce as new demands and care delivery models emerge. As we continue to make technology investments, we expect even greater performance as we further modernize our infrastructure. For example, in 2024, we are launching a fully online and secure platform for schools and regulators to instantly transmit credentials to CGFNS, as well as an AI-enabled communications platform to enhance customer experience.
Accordingly, we are rapidly progressing toward the rollout of a digital application through which nurses can have their records and credentials stored and be able to instantly access them throughout their career journey, whether they choose to stay home or go abroad. This will be a first step toward expanded online offerings with our partners, as we listen and respond to what nurses and other global health professionals say they need for skills portability, professional development, and career advancement.
Moving CGFNS into the future and ensuring we deliver the most credible, trustworthy services means we must continue to operate with impeccable integrity and deliver evidence-based services that are developed by the industry’s best thought leaders. That’s why CGFNS is launching the Global Health Workforce Development Institute in 2024 to serve as a center for excellence when it comes to the evolution of health workforce roles and the development of credentialing and certification programs and policies. Research initiatives will identify the trends and economic policy implications of nursing and health professional mobility and provide industry leadership on global workforce development in the healthcare sector. It will expand on the knowledge and data that is in our 2023 Nurse Migration Report, released in December, which can be used by health workforce experts to shape not only the evolving dialogue around these issues but also the policies and regulations that emerge from them.
I am enormously proud of what our team has accomplished in 2023, and I am excited about where our achievements will lead in 2024. In addition to expressing my appreciation for their efforts, I also want to thank our Board of Trustees, which comprises visionary and hands-on leaders who are inspiring us to live up to our very highest aspirations for CGFNS International.
Peter Preziosi
President & CEO