Diana Wright

In the mid-1980s, Diana Wright foresaw a nursing shortage. Wright, who was working as a registered nurse at a Louisiana hospital, returned to the classroom to prepare to open her own nurse-staffing company.

In 1996, Wright started The Right Solutions in Tontitown, and the business was a hit. Wright, 50, started scheduling one-day shifts for local hospitals. Soon all the hospitals in the area that needed nurses were covered. So she expanded.

The Right Solutions now recruits nurses who are willing to go to hospitals all over the country. It currently has 260 employees. The Right Solutions handles all the housing and travel arrangements for the nurses while they are on their 13-week assignments. The nurses work for The Right Solutions and their work is then leased to the hospitals.

One of the challenges is finding nurses, Wright said. To locate them, Wright said, she does a lot of advertising. Wright declined to release dollar figures, but The Right Solutions has seen a 32 percent increase in revenue between 2006 and 2007. In 2005, The Right Solutions became the sixth health care-staffing company to become certified by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. And in 2006, it passed the recertification.

The company also expanded into the allied health care sector last year and offers temporary respiratory, physical and occupational therapists. The Right Solutions is considering building new headquarters. Wright recently bought the land, but no construction date has been set.

She said hard work is the reason for the company’s success: “Twelve-hour days, six days a week.” Wright said her goal has always been to help the patient. “My business to me is more than let’s earn a dollar and go home,” she said. “My business to me is more of a mission.”

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