submissions from multiple companies

Your recruiter at the first company will tell you no. Your recruiter at your current company will tell you it is ok. Some rumors have it that some hospitals will not let you come in with the second company. These hospitals need travelers because they need to have staff and I think probably do not care.
Have you had a phone interview with the manager previously? If so then call the manger and explain your situation. I would simply let them know that you had previously been submitted to them for consideration by companyA. Now you are working through company B since they were better able to meet your needs. Would it cause them any difficulties?
I did run into a similar situation a couple of years ago. I was submitted to a hospital by company and turned down the job due to personal reasons. about a month later I signed up with company B. Lo and behold they offered me a much better contract. For the same position. They were not going to try and make me pay part of my housing. Pay rate was better. The holiday payscale was 3x what company A offered. So obviously I accepted through company B.
I did not really shop around it was more of an incidental occurance on my part that they offered me the same hospital. Company A Who would not take no for an answer kept trying to get me to take the contract though them and I kept refusing. I finally told them I had in fact taken a contract with another company. They tried to bully me, they accused me of lacking integrity, then they tried to guilt me into going in with them instead of the other company. They kept having different people calling me congratulating me for traveling with them then we would go through the whole thing over again. It all culminated with my original recruiter calling me and again congratulating me on traveling with them and yet again I informed her that I was absolutely not going with them, she then proceed to curse at me and informed me that I had been wasting HER time before she hung up on me.
Moral of the story go with the better company but don't tell the other guys.

I am sorry but once you are submitted by a company to a facility, you have a verbal agreement with them. To go to the same facility but with another agency in and in the same time frame is just bad business. You need to o your homework first and find out the best agency for you............not after everything has been submitted. That is not how to do business. Many contracts actually state that once you are submitted to a facility, you cannot work there for anyone else for a certain time frame. I suggest that you take a good look at what you have signed with the agency. You could actually be looking at about a $10,000 fee for doing this. It also pays to read the fine print of a contract.

Maybe I am missing something, but you may be looking at a company who is not working ethically. I have never been submitted until everything is in order so that I can go right to work. I can't imagine trying to work for a company who would submit you without even an application being filed. What exactly do they have to submit if you have never given them the basics like application, license verification, references, etc.? Do they just submit a name with no supporting documents? I would never work for a company that worked under the radar like that.

Did you give that company permission to submit you? When a company submits you, it is usually with your resume or application; did you give them anything?

Then how could they even submit you? What did they submit? They need all of the documentation to submit you. Something is not right here.

I do agree withwhat you are saying Suzanne. The thing that kept me from accepting the original contract with company A in my situation was that I was taking my 2 year old with me. I tried for 2 weeks to arrange childcare from 1800 miles away and was not able to do so within the time frame requested and then turned down the contract. I had submitted all of my info to this company but had never actually signed anything with them.
I was actually eyeing a contract in another city which I had relatives after I had signed with company B. They then trew out the idea of the original location. I told them I had been offered the job by another company and had been forced to turn it down when my recruiter was able to assist me in finding childcare in that location. It was only then when I agreed to go there. It was not until later during the ordeal that they mentioned that they were planning to charge me part of my housing as they only offered shared housing. I had right up front told them that I would be traveling with a child and told them I would require private housing. They had told me no problem, they just did not mention at the time that they were going to charge me for it.
So in the end I felt like I had been misled by the individuals at the original company. I never thought about pitting one company against another, or shopping out a contract. It was my first contract and I didn't know that the first company was trying to put one over on me.
I also did speak to the manager at the unit and explained my situation and discussed it with her before I accepted with the second company.
maybe I was just a little niave about the way the recruiters work too. I thnk maybe I won't be that niave again.

I think if you do get an interview, explain your situation just as babynursla suggests BEFORE the 2nd submits you. I have read all my contracts and you are not bond to them unless you accept and work the contract for them at the facility. The only thing you could have possibly signed at this point is the job application, and all that consents is that you have been honest on it, not loyality to work for them. It is not until you receive the contract that it states you can't work for the facility through a different company for a certain amount of time. I have been submitted to the same place by 2 different companies, one of which I did not give permission. Anyone who submits you without your approval tread with caution. I did have a friend who didn't get an interview because they were submitted by 2 companies too.