Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, which reported net income of $143 million in the first quarter of 2023, is seeing its contract labor numbers improve, but such costs will continue to be of concern for a while yet.
"We are not expecting our contract labor to get back to pre-pandemic levels [anytime soon], that won't happen this year," Dan Cancelmi, CFO, told analysts on a results call April 25.
While contract labor made up 7.3 percent of all salaries, wages and benefit expenses in the fourth quarter 2022, that number was down to 6 percent in the first quarter 2023.
"The workforce is starting to stabilize," said CEO Saum Sutaria, MD. "We are reducing reliance on contract labor."
The costs of all salaries, wages and benefits accounted for 45 percent of revenues in the first quarter, down from 46 percent in the same period last year and for all of 2022.
"Structural [labor] shortages have not changed, but it is improving," Mr. Sutaria said.