An increasing number of hospital systems, like Allegheny Health Network, have created in-house staffing teams to cope with the pandemic-fueled nursing shortage—and try to beat private temp staffing agencies at their own game, Fortune reports.
Depending on the system, the nurses could work a weeklong stint or a multiple-week assignment at a hospital and then do a similar schedule at another facility. Some even work self-scheduled shifts in various locations, unlike regular staff nurses, who typically work in a single medical unit within one hospital. These workers differ from “float” nurses, who shift from unit to unit on an as-needed basis within a single hospital.
The goal of the in-house teams is to offer enough pay and flexibility to attract nurses to the jobs—and thus reduce the systems’ heavy dependence on more expensive RNs from outside agencies.
Nationally, such contract labor expenses are nearly 500% higher than they were before the pandemic, according to a consulting firm report commissioned by the American Hospital Association. Read more.
