Alum Spotlight: Tom Muscatello Connects Nurses to New Opportunities

By Emily Nunez

Tom Muscatello (BSN ’95) took an early interest in the medical field. By the time he was old enough to enroll at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, he was still figuring out his career goals but had a hunch he was on the right path.

“I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to be—a doctor or nurse—but felt that nursing was the best start,” he says. “I could move on to something else if it didn’t work out.”

Fortunately for Muscatello, he didn’t need to hatch a backup plan. Just three years after earning his bachelor’s degree from Pitt Nursing, he leveraged his knowledge of the industry to launch his own health care recruiting agency. As the founder and CEO of STAT Staffing Medical Services, Muscatello helps to fill more than 150 health care positions each week.

His business is predicated on a mutually beneficial model: pairing medical professionals with meaningful work and helping facilities overcome staff shortages. Muscatello explained that STAT Staffing’s tagline—“the Boy Scouts of health care recruiting”—means they’re prepared for any request.

By focusing on western Pennsylvania, STAT Staffing can get to know prospective employees and employers on a deeper level than national agencies, Muscatello says. His agency provides personalized recommendations on both sides, whether it’s a nurse looking for flexible work or a hospital seeking staff with specific qualifications.

“We really try to find the right person for the position, not just the person who’s available,” Muscatello says. “Sometimes we get positions that we think nurses are a good fit for, and they don’t even realize they have the experience to do it. It changes their whole lives.”

Muscatello also matches nurses with unconventional roles, including health care software trainers for tech companies. Reflecting on the roots of his career, Muscatello says he first learned that nurses could pursue nontraditional career paths while at Pitt. He recalls taking a class that brought in nursing entrepreneurs, including one with a particularly memorable job.

“There was a nurse that came in who worked for an architecture firm and helped design different hospitals, and I thought, ‘Wow, there are so many different things you can do with a nursing degree that no one really knows about,’” he says.

Since launching his company in 1998, Muscatello has hired a “lean and mean” team of seven. They primarily pair nurses with jobs but also work with respiratory therapists and other health care professionals. On the employer side, they work with facilities both big and small, from hospitals to schools to flu clinics.

While the ongoing national nursing shortage has presented both challenges and opportunities for STAT Staffing, Muscatello says its success boils down to a simple formula: building strong relationships with clients and continuing to deliver results year after year.

“I’m proud of our reputation,” he says. “We’ve been in business for 27 years, and some of our clients have been with us since day one. That means a lot to me.”

This profile is part of a longer feature that appeared in the summer 2026 edition of Pitt Nurse magazine. Read more stories of alumni accomplishments in “The Leadership Issue.”