HWL Insights

Most healthcare organizations understand the financial cost of locums. What’s harder to quantify but just as real is the leadership tax that comes with managing them.

I was speaking to an executive in a health system that was six months into having implemented an MSP with a very large staffing agency that had promised everything under the sun from customer service, fill rates, quality and cost savings. I was not shocked to hear that almost none of the promises from sales had materialized.

In nearly every conversation I’ve had with unit-level nursing leaders about insourcing — regardless of health system size or type — one truth frequently prevails: on the surface, most would rather avoid working with per diem staffing companies or internal resource pools. 

The just-released SIA report shows that healthcare staffing revenues are expected to decline by about 6% year-over-year in 2025, to ~$39.4 billion. But there’s a silver lining: signs point toward stabilization, and modest improvement is projected in 2026.

Healthcare organizations across the country continue to contend with unsustainable staffing costs that come with being trapped in a vortex of over-reliance on premium-rate travel nurses and non-local agency staff. But what if there was a better way? 

Healthcare organizations face unprecedented challenges in managing contingent labor costs, vendor relationships, and workforce optimization. Strategic vendor management systems deliver measurable cost savings, enhanced transparency, and oversight of contingent staffing programs—positioning procurement professionals to drive meaningful ROI while maintaining operational excellence.

In a time when the nursing workforce faces unprecedented challenges—burnout, turnover, and unsustainable costs—healthcare leaders must look beyond reactive staffing models. At this year’s AONL Annual Conference, Amanda Wheeler, Vice President of InSourcing at HWL, sat down with the AONL podcast team to discuss how organizations can shift from scrambling to fill shifts to building resilient, future-ready workforce strategies.

Healthcare organizations face mounting pressure to maintain optimal staffing levels while managing costs and quality care. A resilient provider staffing strategy requires three key elements: rate transparency, workforce optimization, and administrative efficiency. HWL helps empower partners to do this every day here are some key learnings in each category: