Livo, the 'app' that connects professionals and healthcare centers to cover shifts and vacancies

Carlos Manubens has always lived in an environment marked by medicine and healthcare. From his mother's experience as a microbiologist and his older sister's as a doctor, Manubens has witnessed the problems linked to healthcare: "Since then, I set out to promote a project that would improve the healthcare system."

It was in 2023 when he began to materialize this objective. After partnering with a software developer, he co-founded Livo with the aim of combating the shortage of healthcare professionals, "a multifaceted problem that arises in part from the lack of digitalization of resource management in healthcare."

This staff management to cover shifts and on-call duties "is still done in many cases manually, with whatsapps, excels or even paper and pen," which can lead to last-minute calls and "high stress for professionals, derived from the lack of flexibility and work-life balance."

Thus, Livo was born with the desire to "digitalize and streamline the connection between healthcare and social-healthcare centers and professionals to make it more efficient," to allow at the same time a better work-life balance and organization for healthcare professionals and "relieve centers of personnel management tasks," with the underlying objective of alleviating the shortage of professionals: "Receiving calls to cover unforeseen shifts that interrupt personal life generates a lot of burnout, and that leads many professionals to consider leaving the profession."

Since its launch two years ago, Livo has grown in staff, reaching 40 people, and also in functions and objectives. Now, the app is structured based on three areas: the platform for managing external temporary coverages; an internal staff management tool, to cover shifts with the center's own professionals, and a portal for structural job offers, in this case for nursing and auxiliary staff.

Through these tools, professionals themselves can sign up for offers or coverages through the app, which also allows exchanging on-call duties. "Livo is not shifts, it is the integral platform for healthcare talent management," Manubens claims.

Entry into new markets

Through its tools, the app now reaches 50,000 professionals from 150 centers. Although the main focus remains on Spain, the startup is opening divisions in Italy and Poland, where "a similar need exists, with similar professional dynamics."

The company, which for now does not communicate its turnover or the investment required for its launch, is free for professionals, and it is the centers that pay for the use of the platform. According to Manubens, salaries and the price of shifts are set by agreement, and decided by the centers, with the possibility of extras in certain cases.

"By the end of the year, we should be present in more than 250 centers and should have 70,000 professionals," highlights Manubens. The goal is not only to grow in users but also in functionalities: "What we offer now is just the tip of the iceberg of what we plan to create," Manubens anticipates. Along these lines, Livo plans to incorporate training options into its platform: "We want to be the reference tool in the lives of healthcare professionals and for hospital managers."

Thus, they aspire to consolidate the app as "the technological ally of healthcare and social-healthcare centers in talent management and acquisition, and at the same time as a partner for professionals, so that they find opportunities and flexibility." And, as Manubens argues, it is crucial "to take care of those who care," because "if professionals are burned out and exhausted, patient care can be impaired," something Livo aims to combat.