This article in Health Leaders Media has an interesting perspective from hospitals regarding controlling nurse labor costs.
It lays out a three-pronged approach to reduce personnel costs for nurses; a new approach to nurse overtime, use of supplemental labor such as from nursing agencies or from an in-house nursing pool, and focusing on retention efforts rather than going through the time and expense of finding and hiring a replacement.
The “Effective use of Supplemental Labor” section discusses the need for nursing agencies, as well as how alternative supplemental labor sources can help with costs:
Many healthcare leaders routinely budget for traveling or per diem nurses, but much of that may be unnecessary, says Hunt. Although there are reasons to use supplemental nurse labor, daily census demands shouldn’t be one of them, she says. Supplemental labor is expensive, she adds, so these nurses should be used to address seasonal volume increases, medical leaves, or to fill in during large training initiatives such as ICD-10.
“I do believe there is a place for supplemental nurses; it’s how you use them. (more…)