Category Archives: Nurse Agency Staffing

Moody’s: Rising costs will slow hospitals rebuilding margins to pre-COVID-19 levels

Posted on by • Posted in Employee Staffing, Employee Staffing Shortage, Health Insurance Industry, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Labor Shortages, Labor Spend Management, Nurse Agency Staffing, Nurse Travelers, Nurses Compensation, Nurses Shortage, Operating Expenses, Operating Income, Operating Margin, Operating Metrics, Operating Performance, Operating Revenue, Physician Compensation, Physician Staffing • Leave a comment

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/rising-costs-will-make-it-difficult-hospitals-rebuild-margins-pre-covid-levels-moodys-says

Operating cash flow margins for nonprofit hospitals fell to a median 7% in 2020.

A shortage of nurses and other workers will continue to erode hospital financial performance into 2022, according to a new Healthcare Quarterly report from Moody’s.

A rise in COVID-19 cases in various regions of the United States has contributed to a wave of nurses, often burned out, resigning to take care of family, to work in less acute healthcare settings such as ambulatory care or to pursue higher-paying contract opportunities, such as becoming a travel nurse.

Hospitals are also having difficulty finding other types of healthcare workers, such as respiratory therapists and imaging technicians, as well as nonclinical workers in areas such as dietary, housekeeping and environmental services.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The report holds no surprises for hospital executives, who already know the financial affect labor shortages are having on revenue. But Moody’s confirms projections that rising costs will make it difficult for hospitals to rebuild margins to pre-COVID-19 levels. 

Labor shortages are driving up costs and also may be limiting the number of lucrative elective procedures, resulting in lost revenue. Not-for-profit hospitals saw operating cash flow margins fall to a median 7% in 2020, from 8.3% in the three prior years, according to Moody’s median data.

Hospitals using contract nurses report that hourly wages are very high, in some cases higher now with the Delta variant than during earlier COVID-19 surges. Many hospitals and health systems have also increased minimum wages for nonclinical workers and are finding they must compete with other service sectors, such as the food industry, to attract nonclinical staff.

Given their substantial reliance on government reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid, most healthcare providers maintain limited pricing flexibility to offset the costs of higher wages. While there are opportunities for more lucrative commercial insurance contracts, rates are the subject of intense negotiations, limiting providers’ pricing power, Moody’s said. 

Providers with strong liquidity and diversified cash flow will remain better positioned to manage stress from cost constraints. Hospitals are taking steps to retain nurses, including developing “float pools” of nurses who can work in multiple departments, increasing retention and merit pay, and expanding healthcare benefits such as mental health and child care services. 

LifeBridge Health, a not-for-profit health system operating in Baltimore and Carroll County, Maryland, paid its nursing staff retention bonuses in December 2020 as the labor market tightened. To recruit nurses, many systems are offering signing bonuses in exchange for multi-year work commitments as well as scholarship and loan forgiveness programs with local nursing schools.

While these strategies will ease the effect of labor shortages over the long term, they will cause hospitals’ costs to increase in 2022 as salaries and benefits typically represent at least half of a hospital’s expenses. Labor shortages will also likely spark an increase in unionization efforts or lead to more difficult negotiations between unions and providers, potentially increasing costs via new contracts.

THE LARGER TREND

The quarterly report focused on the impact of labor shortages and cost pressures for various sectors, including hospitals, insurers, pharmaceuticals, healthcare services such as staffing firms and health insurers.

Health insurers are less affected by labor shortages, wage pressure and potentially burgeoning inflation than many other healthcare sectors, Moody’s said. Insurers reset premiums each year, which helps them to offset inflation. But if the government does not keep up with payment, providers will look to insurers to make up the shortfall. 

Large physician staffing companies, such as Envision Healthcare Corporation and Team Health Holdings, will experience pressure on their profitability as it becomes harder and more expensive to fill open positions as burnout and retirements decrease the number of doctors available to work.

Travel nurse staffing has higher profit margin resilience compared to physician staffing, the report said. 

For real estate investment trusts, worker shortages are slowing net operating income growth for REITs to invest in senior housing and skilled nursing facilities.

Growth in salaries and benefits has exceeded hospitals’ expense growth, a trend likely to continue for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022, Moody’s said in an earlier October report.

In one bright spot in the earlier report, Moody’s noted recent rises in nursing school enrollment indicating a more robust long-term staffing pipeline. However, the aging population, combined with a healthcare workforce that may be retiring from their jobs or quitting due to burnout, represent long-term healthcare staffing challenges nationwide.

Moody’s: Labor shortages weaken hospitals’ financial performance

Posted on by • Posted in Health Insurance Industry, Health Policy, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Labor Shortages, Labor Spend Management, Labor Temporary, Nurse Agency Staffing, Nurse Staffing, Nurses Shortage • Leave a comment
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/moody-s-labor-shortages-weaken-hospitals-financial-performance.html?origin=CFOE&utm_source=CFOE&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&oly_enc_id=2893H2397267F7G

Labor shortages from the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to worsen the financial performance of nonprofit and for-profit hospitals into 2022, an October Moody’s quarterly report found.

As nurses and other workers deal with burnout and resign from positions, some hospitals are limiting elective procedures, which is reducing revenue. They’re also increasing minimum wage and using contract nurses with much higher hourly wages.

Physician staffing companies like Envision Healthcare Corp. and TeamHealth will also struggle with profitability as it becomes more difficult to fill open positions because of fewer available physicians, the report said. 

An Association of American Medical Colleges study in 2020 found that more than 2 out of 5 physicians will be 65 or older by 2030; COVID-19 is accelerating retirement.

Meanwhile, health insurers are not as affected by labor shortages, wage pressure and inflation, according to the report. Because their product is more short-term and premiums reset every year, they have more flexibility when it comes to inflation.

Hospitals paying $24 billion more for labor during the COVID-19 pandemic

Posted on by • Posted in Employee Burnout, Employee Compensation, Employee Overtime, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, Employee Staffing, Employee Staffing Shortage, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Labor Relations, Labor Shortages, Labor Spend Management, Labor Strike, Labor Temporary, Nurse Agency Staffing, Nurses Shortage, Pandemic • Leave a comment

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/hospitals-paying-24-billion-more-labor-during-covid-19-pandemic

Clinical labor costs are up by an average of 8% per patient day, translating to $17 million in additional annual labor expenses.

As the delta variant pushes COVID-19 caseloads to all-time highs, hospitals and health systems across the country are paying $24 billion more per year for qualified clinical labor than they did pre-pandemic, according to a new PINC AI analysis from Premier.

Clinical labor costs are up by an average of 8% per patient day when compared to a pre-pandemic baseline period in 2019. For the average 500-bed facility, this translates to $17 million in additional annual labor expenses since the beginning of the public health emergency.

The data also shows that overtime hours are up 52% as of September. At the same time, the use of agency and temporary labor is up 132% for full-time and 131% for part-time workers. The use of contingency labor – positions created to complete a temporary project or work function – is up nearly 126%.

Overtime and the use of agency staff are the most expensive labor choices for hospitals – usually adding 50% or more to a typical employee’s hourly rate, Premier found.

And hospital workers aren’t just putting in more hours – they’re also working harder. The analysis shows that productivity, measured in worked hours per unit of departmental volume, increased by an average of 7% to 14% year-over-year across the intensive care, nursing and emergency department units, highlighting the significance of the increases in cost-per-hour.

Another complicating factor is that hospital employees are more exposed to COVID-19 than many other workers, with quarantines and recoveries requiring the use of sick time. The data shows that use of sick time, particularly among full-time employees (FTEs) in the intensive care unit, is up 50% for full-time clinical staff and more than 60% for part-time employees when compared with the pre-pandemic baseline.

WHAT’S THE IMPACT

The combined stressors of working more hours while under the constant threat of coronavirus exposure are pushing many hospital workers to the breaking point. In fact, the data shows clinical staff turnover is reaching record highs in key departments like emergency, ICU and nursing. 

Since the start of the pandemic, the annual rate of turnover across these departments has increased from 18% to 30%. This means nearly one-third of all employees in these departments are now turning over each year, which is almost double the rate from two years ago.

This is a number that could increase as new vaccination mandates take effect. Already, one Midwestern system reported a loss of 125 employees who chose not to be vaccinated, while a New York facility reported another 90 resignations. Overall, staffing agencies are predicting up to a 5% resignation rate once vaccine mandates kick in. 

While a minority of the overall workforce, losses of even a few employees during times of extreme stress can have a ripple effect on hospital operations and costs.

THE LARGER TREND

According to the American Hospital Association, hospitals nationwide will lose an estimated $54 billion in net income over the course of the year, even taking into account the $176 billion in federal CARES Act funding from last year. Added staffing costs were not addressed as part of CARES and are further eating into hospital finances. 

As a result, some are now predicting that more than half of all hospitals will have negative margins by the end of 2021 – a trend that could be dire for some community hospitals. 

Prior to the pandemic, about one quarter of hospitals had negative margins, the Kaufman Hall data showed. At the beginning of 2021, after almost a year of COVID-19, half of hospitals had negative margins.

Meanwhile, the most potentially disruptive forces facing hospitals and health systems in the next three years are provider burnout, disengagement and the resulting shortages among healthcare professionals, according to a March survey of 551 healthcare executives.

Hospitals still spending more on PPE, labor as result of COVID-19

Posted on by • Posted in Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Labor Shortages, Labor Spend Management, Nurse Agency Staffing, Nurse Staffing, Nurses Shortage, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Supply Chain, Talent Competition, Talent Identification, Talent Imperative, Talent Management • Leave a comment
https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/ppe-labor-costs-expenses-pandemic-hospitals-premier/608144/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202021-10-13%20Healthcare%20Dive%20%5Bissue:37318%5D&utm_term=Healthcare%20Dive

Dive Brief:

  • Hospitals across the country have spent more than $3 billion on personal protective equipment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, though costs have steadily declined since the worst shortages experienced during the second quarter of 2020, according to an analysis from Premier, a group purchasing organization.
  • Before the pandemic, hospitals normally spent about $7 on PPE costs per patient per day. That figure shot to $20.40 during the second quarter of last year, and during the first quarter of this year was around $12.45 per patient per day, according to Premier.
  • Hospitals are also still paying more for qualified clinical labor — roughly $24 billion more in total per year compared to before the pandemic, according to another Premier analysis out last week.

Dive Insight:

PPE was in short supply early in the pandemic, spurring bidding wars and financially straining hospitals as they suffered from the budgetary fallout of canceled elective surgeries and other lucrative services.

While supply chain challenges have since eased and costs are down since their peak, hospitals are still spending more on PPE than before the pandemic, and consumption and demand remains strong in light of the delta variant, according to the report.

Premier used a database representing 30% of U.S. hospitals across all regions from September 2019 through last month to track spending trends, looking at costs for eye protection, surgical gowns, N95 respirators, face masks, exam gloves and swabs. It then calculated total costs measuring quantities used per patient, per day, multiplied by the percent change in pricing for the quarter.

Ultimately, hospitals are still using far more N95 respirators than they were prior to the pandemic.

Demand is still up for eye protection, surgical gowns and face masks, though pricing is close to pre-pandemic levels for those items. Costs for surgical gloves and N95 respirators are still above pre-pandemic levels, according to the analysis.

While most PPE costs have steadily declined for hospitals, other expenses have not, namely labor costs.

Contract labor costs have fluctuated, though they reached record highs amid COVID-19 surges, commanding record rates from providers. And nursing shortages, especially, have been so dire that hospitals are spending more on recruiting and retaining for the positions, boosting benefits and offering steep sign on bonuses.

Clinical labor costs are up 8% on average per patient, per day compared to before the pandemic, according to the earlier Premier analysis. That translates to about $17 million in additional annual labor expenses for the average 500-bed facility.

As of last month, overtime hours are up 52% since before the pandemic. The use of agency and temporary labor is up 132% for full-time employees and 131% for part-time employees.

The most expensive labor choices for hospitals are contract labor and overtime, typically adding 50% or more to an employee’s hourly rate, according to Premier.

For that report, Premier used a database with daily data from about 250 hospitals, bi-weekly data from 650 hospitals and quarterly data for 500 hospitals from October 2019 through August to analyze workforce trends among employees in emergency departments, intensive care units or nursing areas.

Vaccination shortfall making it harder to fully staff hospitals

Posted on by • Posted in Coronavirus, Coronavirus Delta Variant, Coronavirus Mutation, Employee Mandate, Employee Satisfaction, Employee Staffing, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Bed Shortage, Hospital Capacity, Hospital Industry, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Nurse Agency Staffing, Nurse Staffing, Nurses, Unvaccinated, Vaccination, Vaccine, Vaccine Distribution, Vaccine Efficacy, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vaccine Mandate, Vaccine Mandatory, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Skepticism, Vaccine Supply • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/ef14a7cfd8ed/the-weekly-gist-august-6-2021?e=d1e747d2d8

Your Messages of Support | Emerson Hospital

With vaccine mandates on the rise among healthcare organizations, including many of the health systems we work with, we’ve begun to hear a new argument in favor of getting staff vaccinated—one that weighs against the worry that mandates will drive scarce clinical workers away.

With staffing already stretched, some systems have been concerned that implementing mandates could worsen shortages and force an increase in the use of costly agency labor. But, some executives are now telling us, so could not vaccinating staff. As the highly contagious Delta variant continues to sweep through unvaccinated populations, clinical workers who haven’t gotten their shots are especially susceptible to contracting the virus.

That’s driven a sharp increase in unvaccinated nurses and other workers calling out sick with COVID symptoms, which has made a difficult staffing situation even worse.

Some of the high-profile reports of hospitals running out of beds in the face of the Delta variant are actually driven by running out of staff to keep those beds in use—making it even more critical to ensure that frontline workers are protected against the virus.

As a growing number of hospitals and other care facilities mandate that their workers get vaccinated, we’d hope this unwelcome pressure on an already stretched workforce begins to wane.