HWL Insights

In the dynamic realm of healthcare workforce solutions, the tug-of-war between a mission-driven approach and a metric-oriented mindset often takes center stage. Balancing the human-centric ethos of healthcare with the demands of efficiency and performance metrics presents a challenge for managers and administrators, both internally at health systems and externally with agency or other partners. Understanding the nuances between these two mindsets is crucial for creating an effective workforce strategy that prioritizes both the mission of care and operational excellence.

The primary concern for organizations globally lies in the realm of workforce challenges, and this is evident across various sectors. Nowhere are these challenges more pronounced than in healthcare, with continuous shortages of providers of all types.

A leading healthcare system headquartered in the Southeast, with a network of hospitals and a variety of ancillary health services, was facing a decision to continue with the status quo or insource control of their human capital and workforce solutions.

In the complex world of healthcare staffing, staying ahead requires a deep understanding of the industry. The Staffing Industry Analysts’ (SIA) 2024 Workforce Solutions Buyer Survey, focusing on the United States, sheds light on how organizations manage their flexible workforce, their supplier strategies, and what they prioritize for the future.

In the competitive healthcare landscape, attracting and retaining top talent goes beyond offering competitive salaries and benefits. The strength and appeal of your company's brand play a crucial role in drawing in the right candidates and fostering long-term loyalty among existing staff. This blog explores how effective company branding can be a powerful tool for employee retention and attraction, turning your brand into a magnet for talent and a catalyst for loyalty. 

Over the last several months, much has been discussed about the state of staffing, how certain segments are contracting significantly, and the overall shifting landscape. The one major area of expansion though is the physician and provider space. From the latest by SIA, we are seeing continued locum tenens growth with 27% in 2022, 12% in 2023, and a projected incremental growth in 2024 of an additional 7%.

In today's fast-paced healthcare environment, agility is not just a buzzword—it's a critical strategy for success. The ability of healthcare organizations to quickly adapt to changes, whether in patient care demands, technological advancements, or unexpected crises, hinges practical the agility of their workforce. An agile workforce is characterized by flexibility, resilience, and a proactive approach to change. This blog explores effective strategies for creating an agile workforce in healthcare, ensuring organizations can meet the evolving needs of their patients and the industry at large.

HWL executives, Jeff Niles, Executive Vice President, and Tommy Binner, Vice President, hosted the Becker’s Healthcare Webinar, How Hospitals Can Get an Upper Hand on Contract Staffing, that discusses the distinctions between vendor-neutral Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and master agency MSPs, highlighting the advantages of partnering with a non-agency staffing provider. The HWL leaders were joined by Maxine Briggs, CFO, Samaritan Health, and Meghan Fay-McCaffrey, Network Director Physician Services, UVMHN Medical Group, as they explained how the vendor-neutral MSP model has impacted their organizations for the better.

Every day, healthcare workers strive to provide the best possible care for patients. However, a growing crisis threatens their well-being and the quality of patient care. Recent research by the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work reveals startling statistics: 73% of hospital workers who left their jobs cited understaffing as the primary reason, and a staggering 87% reported high levels of burnout.

For better or worse, the world of locum tenens staffing is changing more rapidly than ever before.  

The Situation

Banner Health, regarded and recognized as a top health system in the country for the clinical quality consistently provided to patients in its hospitals, is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The non-profit health system operates 30 hospitals, including three academic medical centers and other related health entities and services in six states. With over 52,000 employees and 5,000 providers, Banner Health is Arizona's largest private health system and the third largest employer in the Northern Colorado front-range area. 

It is with immense pride and enthusiasm that we extend a heartfelt welcome to Tamara Miller, the latest addition to our HWL team as Vice President. With a career adorned with outstanding achievements and a profound dedication to the healthcare industry, her proven prowess in strategic solutions and business development is showcased through her role as Director of Strategic Solutions at Kirby Bates Associates, Orlando, where she orchestrated client-centered approaches, fostering growth and innovation. Previously, as Regional Sales Manager at Morgan Hunter Healthcare, Kansas City, Tamara displayed exceptional acumen in nurturing client relationships across six states, with a distinct focus on resolving EHR-based challenges.

The past few years have seen a large increase in the utilization of contingent workers. In fact, it's estimated that "the global contingent workforce industry generated $171.5 trillion in 2021 and is estimated to reach $465.2 trillion by 2031." In the healthcare space, around 90% of healthcare executives said they employ travel nurses within their organization in 2021.

It's no secret that the healthcare industry experienced unforeseen challenges that have driven innovation and adaptation in order to survive. Medical facilities have altered procedures and created new policies in order to accommodate massive influxes of patients and improve patient outcomes — but it certainly hasn't been easy, and there are still some common pain points that many organizations still deal with.

Healthcare has been undergoing major staffing upheavals for a very long time, even setting aside the exacerbations that have been felt over the past few years. But while some organizations have pivoted their strategies toward employee-centric retention and engagement models, others have struggled to retain costs. 

Bill Rates for travel healthcare professionals are beginning to stabilize for the first time since 2019. The immediate need for Registered Nurses (RN) at the beginning and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic put intense pressure on hospitals to fill vacancies, regardless of the hit their facilities took to their budget. Demand for staff during the pandemic skyrocketed, and most hospitals due to high vacancy rates of permanent staff needed to meet the demand by using outside staffing agencies. With few options hospitals turned to agencies to supply the nurses their hospitals so desperately needed. With bill rates rapidly increasing, questions began to swirl around what percent of bill rates are going to staff pay packages. The answers to those questions proved elusive.

Kaufman Hall, a well-known management consulting firm, and Syntellis, a healthcare data and intelligence solution organization, released the January 2023 National Hospital Flash Report. The insight provided in the report combines 2022 operating performance data from 900 hospitals nationwide. The National Hospital Flash report is intended to provide healthcare organizations with a granular view of how they are operating in everchanging market conditions with the hopes of providing insight to inspire solutions to hospital financial and operational challenges.

The Pandemic swept the nation and revealed the extreme pressures placed on our country's healthcare delivery system. Healthcare provider organizations face a highly competitive market due to chronic labor shortages and burnt-out medical workers. Additionally, inflation and unsustainable market rates that have yet to stabilize are making for the perfect storm. As a result, hospitals are being forced to find solutions that are both progressive and innovative to combat this clinical staffing dynamic. Healthcare organizations must address labor shortages with more creativity and business intelligence than before the Pandemic to operate in the black.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) shared the news in December that a new workforce solution has attracted the eyes of leadership at many large healthcare organizations across the nation. An increasing number of health systems and medical facilities are creating internal agencies to staff their centers that are struggling with tremendous gaps in their clinical staff and a heavy reliance on travel nurses to fill those gaps. The reliance on travel nurses has created contingent staff costs that have skyrocketed through using the traditional staffing model that healthcare staffing companies offer. Without any cap on what staffing agencies can charge for nurse coverage, hospitals have paid what was asked to avoid any interruption in the care at their facilities. The agency markups are becoming detrimental to the organizations that desperately look to them for nurses.

The 2020s have been a decade of challenges and adversity for society as a whole. Healthcare has borne the brunt of these challenges as it was on the frontlines of many of these trials. Healthcare workers have pushed through many of the obstacles that were put in front of them over the last three years, beginning at the start of the Pandemic. Staff shortages, long hours with no breaks, delays in receiving necessary supplies, and overall low morale have brought forth new core challenges that we must continue to address nationwide as we enter 2023.