While many healthcare systems have been reporting reduced numbers on their contract labor, Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health highlighted a surge in those specific expenses when it released full-year fiscal results Sept. 29.
The 88-hospital system, one of the largest nonprofit systems in the country, said its contract labor costs rose 49 percent to total $933 million for the year. That represented 7.8 percent of the $11.99 billion total labor expenses, compared with 5.6 percent of total expenses in the previous year as pandemic-related challenges continued.
"The corporation's response to these new and ongoing economic factors continues to require increased premium labor rates and use of contract labor staff," according to the system's Sept. 29 filing. "Labor costs in total are still challenged with an increase over fiscal year 2022."
Trinity Health said it would continue to use its internal FirstChoice agency to mitigate some of the continuing cost pressures it faces regarding contract labor.
Salaries and wages overall rose 5 percent on the year to total $9.3 billion. The three largest regions for such expenses were Trinity Health Michigan ($2.3 billion), Trinity Health Iowa ($1.43 billion) and Trinity Health New York ($1.38 billion).
Trinity Health reported a fiscal year $431 million operating loss on revenue of $21.6 billion.