Beyond the Spreadsheet: Building Healthcare’s Future Workforce

WARREN, N.J. – November 25, 2025 – On the surface, the announcement of a partnership between a software company and a healthcare provider can seem routine. But the new collaboration between education technology firm Exxat and Continuum Therapy Partners, a major rehabilitation services network, is more than a simple tech deal. It signals a profound strategic pivot in how the healthcare industry is confronting one of its most pressing challenges: a deepening workforce crisis. By implementing Exxat’s management platform across its nearly 200 facilities, Continuum is moving beyond administrative necessity and treating clinical education as a core component of its long-term business and patient care strategy.

This partnership goes beyond simply launching a new product. It offers a glimpse into a future where technology is not just an efficiency tool, but the foundational infrastructure for building a resilient and highly skilled clinical workforce. It’s a story about moving from the chaotic world of spreadsheets and email chains to a centralized, data-driven approach to talent development.

The Looming Workforce Gap

The backdrop to this partnership is a demographic and public health reality that cannot be ignored. The demand for rehabilitation professionals is surging, and supply is struggling to keep pace. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field is poised for explosive growth between 2022 and 2032. Employment for speech-language pathologists is projected to grow by 19%, physical therapists by 15%, and occupational therapists by 12%—all rates designated as “much faster than average.”

This demand is fueled by an aging population requiring more post-acute and rehabilitative care, as well as a greater awareness and diagnosis of conditions that benefit from therapeutic intervention. For large providers like Continuum Therapy Partners, which hosts physical, occupational, and speech-language pathology students across 15 states, this isn’t an abstract projection; it’s an urgent operational reality. Ensuring a steady pipeline of well-trained clinicians is no longer a passive activity but a critical business imperative. The traditional methods of managing student placements—a fragmented system of phone calls, emails, and complex spreadsheets—are simply not built to handle this scale or urgency.

“This technology will help us stay connected with schools, streamline placements, and enhance the student experience,” noted Adam Morris, CEO of Continuum Therapy Partners, in the official announcement. His statement points to the core challenge: coordinating hundreds of students from dozens of academic programs across a vast network requires a unified infrastructure, not manual effort.

From Administrative Chaos to Strategic Coordination

For decades, the process of securing and managing clinical placements has been a source of significant administrative friction for academic programs, students, and healthcare facilities alike. Clinical education coordinators have been buried under paperwork, tracking compliance requirements like immunizations and background checks, while trying to match students with appropriate sites and preceptors. For students, the process can be opaque and stressful, often involving a frantic scramble to secure a spot that meets their educational needs.

This is the problem that specialized platforms like Exxat One are designed to solve. By centralizing the entire clinical education lifecycle, the system creates a single source of truth. It manages everything from initial site selection and student requests to compliance documentation, scheduling, and performance evaluations. For an organization like Continuum, this means real-time visibility into its entire educational ecosystem. Administrators can see which sites have capacity, track student progress, and ensure every student stepping into a facility meets all regulatory and institutional requirements.

Exxat is not alone in this space. Competitors like CORE ELMS and ACEMAPP offer similar solutions, highlighting a burgeoning market dedicated to digitizing and optimizing this crucial corner of healthcare. The competition is driving innovation, with features like AI-powered placement matching, automated compliance alerts, and sophisticated reporting tools that help programs meet the stringent standards of accreditation bodies like CAPTE (for physical therapy) and ACOTE (for occupational therapy). The goal is to transform clinical education from a logistical headache into a smooth, transparent, and data-rich operation.

Clinical Education as a Competitive Advantage

Viewing the Exxat-Continuum partnership solely through the lens of administrative efficiency misses the larger strategic play. For a multi-state provider in a consolidating healthcare market, a robust clinical education program is a powerful competitive advantage. By investing in a platform that enhances the student experience, Continuum is positioning itself as a premier destination for clinical training.

Students who have a positive, organized, and supportive placement experience are more likely to seek employment with that same organization upon graduation. A streamlined system reduces the burden on existing clinicians who act as preceptors, making them more willing and effective teachers. This creates a virtuous cycle: a better educational environment attracts more students, which in turn builds a reliable talent pipeline of clinicians already familiar with the organization’s culture, procedures, and patient population. In an industry battling high turnover and recruitment costs, the ability to “grow your own” talent is invaluable.

“This partnership is about more than technology,” said Aarti Vaishnav, CEO of Exxat. “It is about building capacity, supporting clinical educators, and helping Continuum Therapy Partners develop the clinicians and care teams of tomorrow.”

This perspective reframes clinical education from a cost center to a strategic investment in workforce development. By analyzing data from the platform, leadership at Continuum can identify trends, forecast staffing needs, and make informed decisions about where to expand services. It allows them to proactively build the workforce they will need in three to five years, rather than reactively hiring in a tight labor market.

This proactive stance is becoming essential for navigating the complexities of modern healthcare. Ensuring compliance with a web of regulations, including HIPAA for patient privacy and FERPA for student records, across hundreds of sites is a monumental task. A centralized platform automates much of this risk management, providing a standardized, auditable trail that is crucial for maintaining accreditation and avoiding costly compliance failures. For Continuum, this investment is as much about risk mitigation and strategic planning as it is about operational efficiency.