Discover best recruiting services in Canada, connecting skilled professionals with leading medical institutions. Our expert recruiters specialize in matching talent with roles in hospitals, clinics, and specialized care facilities, ensuring exceptional career opportunities and quality patient care nationwide.
Discover best recruiting services in Canada, connecting skilled professionals with leading medical institutions. Our expert recruiters specialize in matching talent with roles in hospitals, clinics, and specialized care facilities, ensuring exceptional career opportunities and quality patient care nationwide.
The healthcare sector in Canada faces chronic staffing shortages and intense competition for qualified professionals. Statistics Canada estimates over 32,000 regulated nursing positions are currently vacant (nearly half for RNs/RPNs), and experts project a shortfall of 117,600 nurses by 2030. Hospitals, long-term care homes, clinics and community facilities therefore rely on specialized recruitment firms to find talent. This blog highlights the best healthcare recruiting services in Canada, profiling leading Canadian agencies and international firms that place healthcare professionals in Canada. We cover permanent staffing and executive search, nursing and allied health placement, travel/locum tenens staffing, and rural/remote recruitment – all essential services for today’s health organizations.
Healthcare recruiters are judged on their candidate networks, industry expertise, and speed in filling critical roles. Many agencies focus on specific niches – for example, nursing and PSW staffing, allied health placement, physician and executive search, or locum tenens assignments. Others specialize in temporary/contract staffing or international recruitment (bringing overseas clinicians to Canada). Some even focus on rural and Northern communities, where attracting staff often requires extra incentives. Throughout, decision-makers look for agencies with strong compliance (accreditation, licensing support), extensive candidate vetting, and a proven track record of successful placements.
Healthcare recruitment services in Canada can be categorized by role type and service model:
Each type of service addresses different organizational needs. For example, permanent placement agencies like Mirams Becker or The Medfall Group focus on high-level executive and physician roles. In contrast, firms like Goodwill Staffing, Greenstaff Medical and Staffmax specialize in nursing and allied placements, handling large volume of RN/RPN/PSW roles. Locum and travel agencies (Aya, CHG, IntelliStaff) thrive on flexibility, matching available clinicians to short-term contracts. And rural-focused recruiters (like Canadian Health Care Agency) have expertise in the unique requirements of Northern and Indigenous healthcare.
Below is a comparison of some top Canadian healthcare staffing firms:
Agency | Headquarters | Specialties | Key Services | Notes / Differentiators |
Goodwill Staffing & Recruitment | Kanata, ON | Nurses, PSWs, Physicians, Allied | Travel nursing, temp/permanent RN/RPN/PSW staffing, physician & executive placement | Privately-owned; serves hospitals, LTC, clinics nationwide; broad coverage including rural. |
Agile Healthcare Solutions (AHS) | Etobicoke, ON | PSWs, RNs, NPs, Community Support Workers | Temporary & permanent staffing for hospitals, nursing homes, group homes | GTA-focused; emphasizes personalized, heart-led staffing |
Staffmax Healthcare | Chicago, IL (offices in major Canadian cities) | Physicians, Nurses, Allied, Executives | Travel nursing, per diem, locum tenens, permanent placements | 15+ years experience; covers North America; handles all roles from RNs to family physicians and IT/admin positions. |
Greenstaff Medical Canada | Mississauga, ON | Registered Nurses, RPNs, PSWs | Nurse staffing (travel, perm, temp), international placements | Specialist nurse staffing; proudly “nurses first” culture; activity in all provinces. |
MEDSAG | Toronto, ON | Nurses, Allied Health, Caregivers | RNs/LPNs/PSWs for hospitals, LTC, clinics, home care; allied & physician recruitment | 5+ years in business; licensed in Ontario; focus on quality care and compliance. |
Canadian Health Care Agency (CHCA) | Cambridge, ON | Registered Nurses (ER/ICU/NP) | Travel nursing, full-time placements in Northern Canada and remote communities | ISO-certified; specializes in Indigenous/northern healthcare; offers high pay and benefits for remote RN contracts. |
Each agency above offers a range of services but has its own niche or strengths. For example, Goodwill Staffing markets itself as “Canada’s choice for top-tier healthcare staffing” and handles everything from acute care to retirement homes. Agile Healthcare prides itself on small-team flexibility and placing PSWs and RNs with heart. Staffmax emphasizes speed and confidentiality in physician and nursing recruitment, working on both contingency and retained searches. Greenstaff and MEDSAG focus primarily on nurse/PSW roles across Ontario and beyond, ensuring candidates are fully credentialed. CHCA’s distinctive mandate is staffing Canada’s North: they highlight providing “high quality nursing services of distinctive value” to remote areas.
Below, we discuss in detail different segments of the recruiting industry and the top firms serving each segment.
The Medfall Group (St. Catharines, ON) is a venerable name in Canadian healthcare executive search. Founded in 1989, Medfall provides retained executive and physician search, as well as consulting services. Their “Search Division” specializes in executive, physician leadership and specialist recruitment. With over 36 years of experience, Medfall has an extensive client base in Ontario and nationally. They focus on senior roles: chief physicians, hospital executives, and senior administrators. Medfall combines industry knowledge with assessment tools (e.g. 360° performance evaluations) and cultural-fit analysis. Clients include hospitals and health systems seeking C-suite leaders who can drive growth and change. Medfall highlights their national/international reach and an 18% improvement in client retention (from site stats not shown here) as differentiators.
Mirams Becker (Toronto) is a newer but high-profile retained executive search boutique. Co-founded in 2020 by former in-house recruiters, it concentrates exclusively on the healthcare sector. Their team has over 40 years of combined experience, and they work on assignments such as CEO, CFO, CNO, and board director searches. Mirams Becker emphasizes “high level of service and customization”, leveraging their sector networks (for example, active membership in the Canadian College of Health Leaders). This firm is well-known for quality executive placements and diversity in hiring. They often handle complex, high-impact searches for hospitals, regional health authorities, and agencies, and pride themselves on their intimate understanding of healthcare leadership roles.
Both Medfall Group and Mirams Becker handle fully permanent positions (no temp or travel). They differ from general staffing agencies by offering retained search (paid fee upfront) and in-depth processes. Other Canadian executive recruiters include Odgers Berndtson – Healthcare and Phillips Search, but Mirams and Medfall are specialized boutiques often cited among the “best healthcare recruiting” references.
Nursing and Allied Health Staffing:
For filling everyday clinical roles, many Canadian facilities turn to large nursing/PSW recruitment agencies. These firms typically provide RNs, RPNs/LPNs, PSWs/HCAs (health care aides), and allied professionals (physiotherapists, pharmacists, lab techs, etc.) on permanent and contract terms.
Goodwill Staffing & Recruitment (Kanata, ON) is a comprehensive healthcare staffing provider. According to their LinkedIn profile, they serve hospitals, nursing and retirement homes nationwide. They specialize in experienced NPs, RNs, RPNs, PSWs, physicians and physiotherapists. Goodwill handles urban and rural assignments, boasting rapid fill times: their recruiters claim to place RNs, LPNs, and HCAs within “a few business days” in urban centers, and provide realistic timelines for remote roles (emphasizing transparency). In addition to nursing, Goodwill also has a physician and executive division (for locum doctors, nurse practitioners, etc.) and offers allied staffing. They advertise 24/7 support, credential checks through Ontario colleges, and high retention of placed staff.
Agile Healthcare Solutions (AHS) (Etobicoke/Toronto) is a mid-size staffing firm focused on the Greater Toronto Area. According to their LinkedIn, Agile provides healthcare professionals to “a wide range of facilities” including nursing homes, rehab centers, group homes and hospitals. Their specialties include Personal Support Workers, RNs/RPNs/NPs, Community Service Workers, Developmental Service Workers, and even pharmacists and pharmacy assistants. Agile emphasizes integrity and personal fit: they do intensive interviews to ensure candidates match facility culture. Their website boasts metrics like 25% reduction in turnover and 100% shift fill rate for clients. In short, Agile is known for high-touch service and fast deployment of nurses/PSWs, primarily in urban and suburban Ontario.
Staffmax Healthcare (Chicago), with Canadian offices) is a global provider with strong Canadian operations. Their website explains: “Staffmax specializes in the temporary and permanent recruitment of medical professionals for hospitals, clinics, and family medical groups.”. Staffmax covers RNs, LPNs, CNAs, as well as physicians (family docs, specialists, emergency) and allied professionals (OTs, pharmacy techs, respiratory techs, etc.). They offer travel nursing, per diem contracts, locum tenens, and permanent placement. Notably, Staffmax also fills non-clinical roles (labour & delivery nurses, OR nurses) and even back-office positions (accountants, IT, legal, customer care). They operate on both contingency and retained search models. With 15+ years in business, Staffmax touts a one-stop-shop model – whether a hospital needs an RN for a temporary ICU shift or a CFO for the finance department, Staffmax can recruit it. According to their site, they actively manage the process from advertising to credentialing, emphasizing confidentiality and speed.
Canada (Mississauga) is a dedicated nursing staffing agency. Their tagline is “Right staff. Right now.”. Greenstaff promises “high-quality talent across the country and internationally”. It focuses primarily on nursing (RNs, RPNs) and PSWs, with nurses “at the forefront” of their model. They maintain a pool of specialist nurses for travel, international placements, and short- or long-term assignments. They highlight rigorous vetting and compliance (regulatory and college standards). Greenstaff’s website features multiple testimonials from nurses about travel flexibility. In practice, Greenstaff tends to serve western Canada and offshore candidates (they have nurses in international projects), but they do fill domestic Canadian nurse roles too. Unlike the generalist firms, Greenstaff’s differentiator is its sheer focus on nurse staffing and its international reach.
MEDSAG (Toronto) is a newer agency (about 5 years old) that markets itself as “Canada’s leading medical staffing agency”. MEDSAG’s focus is broad: it provides RNs, LPNs/RPNs, PSWs and allied therapists to hospitals, clinics, long-term care and home care. Their site emphasizes a “skilled and vetted” talent pool, with specialties in critical care, med/surg, pediatrics and more. Services include permanent, temporary, contract and travel nursing placements. MEDSAG also offers staffing for emergency/urgent needs (sick calls, vacation cover). Notably, they handle allied professionals and even some physician recruitment services, along with compliance/credentialing support. While younger than some peers, MEDSAG highlights aggressive growth (“Trusted by 27 leading employers” as of site text) and breadth of offerings. Clients can use their “Start Career” or “Hire Candidates” portals, suggesting a tech-enabled service.
In addition to the above, other noteworthy Canadian staffing firms include Nurse Next Door (often PSWs for home care), Excel Care (Toronto travel nurse agency), and smaller boutique agencies (e.g. Good Integra, CMI Health Care). However, the ones profiled above represent broad-scope leaders often cited on “best agency” lists.
Short-term physician and nurse staffing is often handled by international or cross-border firms. Even though many of these are U.S.-based, they operate extensively in Canada or recruit Canadian professionals.
Aya Healthcare (San Diego, CA) is the largest travel nursing agency in the U.S. and a top provider of allied and locum staffing. According to Aya’s site, “As America’s largest travel nursing agency, and a leading allied and locums agency, we make things simple”. Aya offers thousands of travel RN and allied assignments annually, and also has a physician staffing division (Aya Locums). Canadian nurses frequently use Aya to obtain travel contracts in the U.S.; Aya runs a specialized program “Travel Nursing from Canada”. Hospitals and clinics in the U.S. and occasionally Canada partner with Aya for temporary coverage. Aya emphasizes a tech platform (AI-driven matching) and concierge services for clinicians. Aya is a good example of an international recruiter that could staff Canadian facilities via cross-border licensure or virtual (telehealth) roles.
AMN Healthcare (Los Angeles, CA) is a Fortune-ranked giant in healthcare staffing. It offers “an entire spectrum of healthcare staffing services under one roof”. In practice, AMN’s brands cover: nursing (travel, per diem, permanent), allied health (temp and perm), physician (permanent and locum), and healthcare leadership (executive search via Merritt Hawkins). For Canadian clients, AMN’s relevance is indirect but significant: their Staff Care brand provides locum tenens physician and advanced practitioner staffing, while Merritt Hawkins handles permanent physician recruitment. For nursing, AMN can supply travel nurses even to Canadian facilities (or vice versa, Canadians to US). Their site states that for nursing, “we connect to the largest and most diverse pool of nurse staffing candidates”. Similarly, their physician page mentions the “industry’s largest locums database”. Given their scale, AMN and its subsidiaries are often used by large hospitals and health systems, including some in Canada that seek international talent or need high-volume staffing. While AMN itself is American, its breadth (nursing, allied, physician, telehealth) makes it a top external resource.
CHG Healthcare (Spokane, WA) is another U.S. leader. CHG brands include Staff Care (locum physicians/APs), CompHealth (physicians), and Affinity (nursing). They highlight that they run the “industry’s largest locums database” for customizing solutions like locum tenens and telehealth. CHG is best known for physician and APP locums, but they also provide therapists and allied via CHG Allied. For Canadian employers, CHG helps fill gaps in specialties that are hard to recruit locally (e.g. anesthesiology locums, ICU nurse practitioners). Their high-tech platform and account management are differentiators. For example, CHG notes that their telehealth teams can provide multi-state licensed providers nationwide. While CHG doesn’t focus on standard nursing roles in Canada, their depth in locums/telehealth makes them a key partner when provincial pools run dry.
IntelliStaff Medical (Toronto, ON) is a Canada-based contract staffing firm with international reach. Its website proudly states: “We place travel nurses, locum tenens and allied health pros across Canada, the U.S. and around the world.”. IntelliStaff handles Canadian RNs seeking U.S. assignments, as well as U.S. (and even Mexican) clinicians looking for work in Canada. They run North American job boards and manage visas/credentialing (they have articles on TN visas, for example). IntelliStaff says it “efficiently and accurately matches facilities with well-aligned, stringently-vetted talent”. For Canadian hospitals facing regional shortages, IntelliStaff offers a pipeline of vetted travel nurses or allied professionals from abroad. Their key advantage is expertise in cross-border compliance and a large bilingual recruiting team.
Other notable locum/travel firms include LocumTenens.com (Atlanta, GA), which operates the largest online job board and agency teams for physicians and APPs Physicians and facilities often use LocumTenens.com to find Canadian, U.S., or international assignments. Another is Nurse Next Door Travel, which helps Canadian RNs find travel positions across provinces.
In summary, for temporary staffing, organizations often mix domestic agencies (for quick local coverage) with these larger international partners (for specialty gaps or large mandates). Each offers technology (mobile apps, credential tracking) and logistical support that goes beyond a typical placement firm.
Staffing remote and rural areas in Canada is a special challenge. A few agencies dedicate themselves to this mission.
Canadian Health Care Agency (CHCA) is a prime example. They specifically brand themselves as serving “distinctive value” nursing in Canada’s North. CHCA focuses on Indigenous and remote communities across Yukon, N.W.T., Nunavut and northern provinces. Their website markets travel nursing contracts with premium pay and comprehensive support. CHCA often recruits ICU and ER nurses and NPs who are willing to work in small clinics or community health centers. They ensure clinicians meet advanced certification requirements (ACLS, PALS, etc.). CHCA’s deep understanding of northern culture and strong incentives (such as higher wages, shift premiums and travel) set them apart. As their tagline says, “You take care of your patients. We take care of you.” This focus on caregiver support and adventure is appealing for nurses seeking something beyond urban hospitals.
Goodwill Staffing & Recruitment, mentioned earlier, also offers specialized rural/remote staffing under its services menu. Many other agencies provide “rural outreach” divisions or flexible travel positions for underserved areas. For example, Nurse Relief, ULC has projects in Atlantic Canada, and some provincial agencies (like Ontario’s Northern RPP) tap into national recruiters. When choosing a partner for rural assignments, look for agencies with experience in travel nursing, per diem arrangements, and knowledge of provincial rural incentive programs. Many will bundle accommodation and travel logistics to make the move easier. In practice, facilities often contract these agencies when provincial health ministries seek to fill persistent gaps (e.g. ER nurses in remote communities).
For a quick overview, the table above summarized key attributes of leading agencies. Some additional highlights and differentiators:
Ultimately, the best healthcare recruiting service for a given need depends on specialty. Hospitals needing nurses for peak season might pick Goodwill or Staffmax. A clinic seeking an on-call ER doctor might contact CHG Staff Care or LocumTenens.com. A long-term executive search belongs to Mirams Becker or Medfall. Rural clinics often work through CHCA or travel-arm of large agencies.
Healthcare decision-makers should evaluate agencies on several factors:
A productive strategy is often a hybrid approach: keep relationships with 1–2 domestic agencies for core staffing needs (nursing, allied) and have national or international partners on call for rare or high-volume needs. Building long-term partnerships (versus one-off emergency hires) leads to better understanding of each other’s systems and can improve retention.
In summary, the best healthcare recruiting services in Canada include a mix of domestic and international firms, each with particular strengths. Canadian agencies like Goodwill Staffing, Agile Healthcare, Staffmax, Greenstaff and MEDSAG excel at filling nursing/PSW and allied roles nationwide. Executive search is led by specialists such as The Medfall Group and Mirams Becker. For locum and travel staffing, global giants Aya Healthcare, AMN/Staff Care, CHG and IntelliStaff provide deep talent pools and rapid deployment. Organizations in rural Canada turn to niche recruiters like the Canadian Health Care Agency for remote placements.
Decision-makers should match their needs to these firms’ specialties: e.g. a hospital facing a nursing shortage might partner with Goodwill or Greenstaff, whereas a clinic needing a temporary physician might use CHG or LocumTenens.com.
Regardless of choice, high-performing agencies share core qualities: industry focus, rigorous vetting, fast response, and a culture of collaboration. As Canada’s healthcare demand grows, leveraging these specialized recruiting services is critical to ensuring that hospitals, long-term care homes and clinics can hire the talent they need — when and where they need it.
The most effective strategy is a hybrid approach combining AI-powered applicant tracking systems, remote/hybrid role offerings, and a strong employer brand. This trio ensures speed, flexibility, and high candidate engagement while maintaining compliance and cultural fit.
AI automates resume screening, candidate matching, and communication through chatbots. It helps reduce time-to-hire by over 40%, filters qualified talent based on licenses and certifications, and ensures consistent follow-ups—all crucial in a talent-starved healthcare market.
A strong employer brand builds trust and credibility with candidates. In healthcare, showcasing values like patient care, work-life balance, and career growth opportunities significantly improves application rates and helps attract top clinical talent in competitive regions.
Using a combination of these boosts both quality and quantity of candidates.
Clearly label remote/hybrid options in job listings, highlight flexible scheduling, offer telehealth tools, and promote virtual onboarding programs. Many clinical roles—like mental health professionals or tele-nurses—are ideal for remote-first hiring.
An EVP is the unique set of benefits and values your organization offers employees. A strong EVP (e.g., tuition reimbursement, clear career paths, mental health support) improves retention and makes your job offers more compelling compared to competitors.
Use blind resume screening, structured interviews, and AI tools that remove demographic info. Also, train recruiters in DEI best practices and ensure job descriptions use inclusive language. These steps improve fairness and workforce diversity.
Key metrics include:
Build a talent pipeline ahead of time, maintain travel nurse and gig worker relationships, and have pre-approved credentialing workflows. Using a flexible, modular hiring system helps fill roles within days rather than weeks.
Investing in upskilling and internal promotions reduces hiring costs and improves retention. For example, training nurses for advanced practice or leadership roles ensures continuity and fills key positions faster than external hiring.
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