In an interactive session at Becker's 11th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, Susan Pasley, MSN, BSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer at CareRev, and Mark Smith, Insights, Optimization and Staffing Executive at Renton, WA based Providence, discussed the benefits of using a flexible workforce and other innovative staffing efforts to save on labor costs, reduce turnover and increase the number of filled roles.
Ms. Pasley explained that CareRev is a marketplace that connects hospitals and health systems with caregivers, using technology to match employer needs with caregiver availability. CareRev has the ability to meet hospitals and health systems where they are to build a more flexible workforce to augment traditional staffing methods, including the ability to connect hospitals with caregivers. Mr. Smith discussed how Providence has implemented new recruitment and retention strategies, including using technology to optimize staffing, reduce workload and administrative burden, and automate tasks. He also highlighted the importance of rethinking care models and reinvigorating skill mixes. Both speakers emphasized the importance of transforming workforce strategies to meet changing needs, and attract and retain employees.
Key Takeaways:
1: Healthcare workers today are looking for more flexible work schedules, and health systems can adapt to attract those workers.
Mark Smith: "From an ecosystem perspective, what we realized is we're seeing more people who desire to work differently. … When we think about our own internal per diems, most of those come with a supplemental staffing agreement that has nothing to do with the individual's flexibility. It has everything to do with the healthcare system's flexibility. So one of the things that we've done is we've partnered with CareRev to say we'll be different. We'll provide unclaimed shifts, we'll break those out into something that's more digestible for someone who might be available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. because that's when the kids are at school."
2: Flexible staffing models, such as utilizing a marketplace for healthcare providers, can benefit both the health system and the nurses.
Susan Pasley: "The rising costs during the pandemic, and the sustained high costs in many cases post-pandemic, are one of the biggest challenges that face healthcare. So working
for CareRev, I'm really excited to be able to bring options to the table to help make sure that every patient in a bed has the right caregivers that they need, but in a way that helps you all contain your costs so that you can continue to grow and function safely and with high quality."
3. Using a platform like CareRev, where healthcare workers can choose the open shifts they'd like to work, has helped Providence reduce its reliance on staffing agencies.
MS: "The 300 plus clinicians working through the platform are filling shifts for us, and again, we filled up around 25,000 shifts this year. That group is consistently working at about 15% to 20% less than our agency costs. And we've brought our agency costs down over 35% this year. While we've seen some modest reduction in overall agency use, we brought the cost down
considerably. And that group of folks is actually then again working at a lower rate. So it gives
us a really good supplement."
4: Adopting technology has helped Providence predict staffing needs, optimize staffing levels and fill open shifts while reducing administrative burdens for nurses.
MS: "Technology has been really important for us in the near term. It's providing us with insights so that we can drive to action more quickly and really giving us insights that we probably didn't have before. We recently launched what we call, predictive scheduler. So I mentioned workload for our nurses, but for our nurse leaders, all of our leaders, administrative burden is huge. There are so many demands on their time. One of the most important tasks is scheduling. And so we've worked with nurses and our technology group to actually create a predictive schedule that forecasts the schedule for the next six weeks based on the parameters that the leader set. So they set the parameters, the algorithm, and the artificial intelligence actually provides options."