Rising costs, contract work exacerbate nursing shortage for state’s safety net hospital

As a part of efforts to deal with a scarcity of nurses and respiratory therapists, the College of Mississippi Medical Middle (UMMC) hosted a walk-in job truthful on Monday. 

Pre-pandemic, UMMC would have a median of 30 open nursing positions at a time. That quantity has ballooned to over 200 over the previous few years. 

For respiratory remedy, the hospital has 30 open positions in its grownup hospital and 20 to 25 openings in its pediatric unit.

In the course of the five-hour job truthful, 16 candidates confirmed up and 11 had been provided jobs on the spot. All accepted their presents. 

Patrice Donald, a registered nurse and supervisor of medical recruitment and retainment at UMMC, stated that the streamlined job truthful course of cuts down the time from the interview to hiring by round 42 days. 

Abigail Could of Madison is one among UMMC’s latest hires. Could will graduate from UMMC’s nursing college on Could 27 and begin her new job within the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit simply three days later. 

Could stated that her expertise at UMMC, each as a scholar and a affected person, together with the middle’s give attention to medical analysis, makes her wish to keep in Mississippi. 

“I really like serving to the sickest of the sick sufferers,” Could stated. “I really feel like that’s positively my calling.”

Mississippi has misplaced greater than 2,000 nurses over the course of the pandemic as a result of burnout or greater paying jobs in different states, typically in journey nursing. This pressure is being felt all throughout the nation, and the nationwide scarcity of nurses is prone to worsen over time. 

The growing old inhabitants creates further challenges:  An older inhabitants will increase the demand for well being care providers, whereas additionally lowering the variety of working registered nurses as extra retire from the workforce. 

A brand new report from the McKinsey consulting agency estimates that the US might have between 200,000 to 450,000 fewer nurses accessible than are wanted by 2025. The variety of nursing college graduates who enter and keep within the workforce would want to greater than double yearly till 2025 to fulfill this demand. 

A number of the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funding was appropriated to assist handle this difficulty, together with $40 million for nurse coaching at faculties and universities and $6 million for forgiving nurses’ scholar loans. 

However the results of this funding gained’t be felt for a while and does nothing for hospitals who want nurses instantly.

“It’s been difficult to recruit to retain, when there are such a lot of journey businesses on the market who can supply them much more cash to depart the state … I’d be mendacity if I stated that I hadn’t gotten an electronic mail or cellphone name asking what my curiosity is,” Gordon Gartrell, a nurse supervisor in UMMC’s pediatric intensive care unit, stated.

Nonetheless, UMMC has a aggressive benefit over different well being care suppliers within the state, Gartrell stated, as a result of it hosts  the state’s solely kids’s hospital. 

Nelson Weichold, UMMC’s chief monetary officer, addressed the nursing scarcity throughout a gathering of  the Establishments of Greater Studying’s Well being Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

The labor prices for nurses have elevated 14% when in comparison with the averaged income generated by all inpatient and outpatient providers UMMC gives, based on Weichold. 

Weichold additionally introduced knowledge from the well being care administration consulting agency Kaufman Corridor & Associates that confirmed the dramatic enhance within the nationwide common for contract nurse labor prices. Earlier than the coronavirus pandemic, wage charges for contract nurses had been nearly double these for employed nurses. By March 2022, contract nurses had been making practically 4 instances greater than employed nurses.

The elevated labor prices, coupled with elevated prices for provides, are “squeezing” hospitals in a method that’s not occurring in different industries, Weichold stated. Airways and quick meals corporations can move these elevated prices immediately onto customers in a method hospitals can’t.

“That’s not occurring within the hospital trade, as a result of, keep in mind, we’re not charging prospects, we’re charging insurance coverage corporations,” Weichold stated. “And the insurance coverage corporations are very reticent proper now to extend hospital fee charges.”

This stress between hospitals and insurance coverage corporations has been enjoying out overtly in Mississippi over the previous few months as a result of UMMC’s intense contract dispute with Blue Cross & Blue Protect of Mississippi, the state’s largest non-public insurer.

UMMC presently has round 3,000 nurses throughout its system, and round 100 of them are contract staff. Weichold stated UMMC is planning on rising nurse wages additional when the hospital can wean itself off contract nurse labor.

Donald stated that along with their regular nursing duties, the job descriptions for nurses consists of the phrase “and all different duties as assigned,” an addition that has helped them keep afloat through the labor scarcity. Nurses are sometimes moved round to completely different items as wanted. 

“We have nurses floating round in every single place,” Tyler Fitzgerald, a nurse supervisor in UMMC’s transplant unit, stated. “So we have managed. It has been powerful at instances, and it stays powerful, however we’re all right here for a similar motive.”

In the course of the IHL assembly, Weichold stated that the habits of contract nurses has modified not too long ago. Whereas many had been leaving to work in different states early within the pandemic, now they’re leaving a job at one hospital to do contract work at one other hospital in the identical metropolis. In keeping with Weichold, most UMMC nurses who go away for contract work return to the hospital inside three to 4 months.

Fitzgerald skilled that development firsthand.

Fitzgerald stated his crew misplaced three full-time nurses through the pandemic who’ve not too long ago returned to UMMC.

“Now we have folks that go away after which come again,” Fitzgerald stated. “Everyone at all times comes residence.”