New case study explains how the Kentucky-based health system optimized staffing and reduced external agency rates with flexible employment and smart technology.
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (September 15, 2022) – Hallmark Health Care Solutions (HHCS) – a leading workforce technology firm – helps hospitals, health systems, and long-term care facilities reduce contract labor spend and hire more clinical staff. The meteoric rise of agency jobs for nurses and allied health professionals is still going strong, and hospital and health system leaders need a strategic, cost-effective way to balance supply and demand in the workforce. Many are finding recruitment success through an “internal agency” model using smart technology. Case in point: Norton Healthcare – a six-hospital system with hundreds of care locations in Kentucky and southern Indiana. Norton Healthcare has achieved 300+ clinical hires within seven months of launching their redesigned employment models within Norton Clinical Agency (NCA), powered by Einstein II.
Under this new model, Norton Healthcare has been able to achieve a 98 percent fill rate, $30-40 per hour savings on nurse wages, and a substantial influx of new, experienced hires. The Norton Healthcare case study offers an inside look at how leveraging technology can empower provider organizations to compete more effectively with external staffing agencies.
“The labor force made clear what our greatest opportunities were,” said Scott Watkins, Vice President of Operations at Norton Healthcare. “To bring more clinical staff to the bedside without the high rate spread associated with external contracting, we needed flexible scheduling and greater rate control. With Einstein II, we have both.”
The labor market is rewarding them for that. Since launching the strategic employment models and connecting to staff through smart technology in 2021, Norton Healthcare’s clinician float pool – NCA – has grown 10 times in size. Approximately 30-40 percent of the external travelers in their system have converted to internal resources, and Norton Healthcare’s leaders now have the visibility and “levers” needed to flex rates up and down based on real-time submission volume and market rate data from Einstein II. They’ve also substantially improved efficiency and eliminated risk of overpaying their agency vendors, says Betsy Coomer, BSN, RN-BC, NCA Director.
For its robust internal agency model, NCA uses Einstein II Internal Resource Pool and Einstein II Vendor Management System, both of which are interoperable with other management systems including timekeeping and invoicing. By enabling NCA to insource all aspects of labor management instead of relying on a third-party managed service provider (MSP), Coomer says Einstein II unlocked “a direct line of sight” into all available labor resources, as well as utilization, pay rates, and more. It’s made administrative tasks more efficient, reporting more robust, and recruitment efforts more effective. All that, in addition to significant savings on labor spend.
“Obviously, the goal at every health system is to maximize use of internal labor – and that’s exactly what they’re achieving now at Norton Healthcare, as the case study shows,” says Jennifer Firmalan, MSN, RN, Vice President of Workforce for Einstein II. “Norton Healthcare’s NCA program is setting an excellent example of what it means to listen to the workforce and deliver what they need to become part of your internal resource team and make you an employer of choice for top talent.”
For more information, read the full case study here.
About Hallmark Health Care Solutions, Inc.
Hallmark Health Care Solutions, Inc. (HHCS) is a healthcare technology firm headquartered in New York. Each of our experienced executive team members brings an average of 20+ years in IT, nursing, process engineering, finance, and healthcare. HHCS is ranked No. 318 in the 2021 Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in the U.S. The company’s simply intelligent provider and workforce solutions are used by over 100,000 healthcare professionals in more than 4,000 healthcare facilities across all 50 states. In the past decade, we have collectively delivered over $250 million in cost savings and revenue gains to our clients and calculated nearly $5 billion in physician compensation, thanks to our best-in-class workforce and compensation management technologies.
HHCS workforce solutions include Einstein II, a workforce sourcing, deployment and vendor management solution, and Heisenberg II, a physician compensation and contract management solution. For more information, visit www.einsteinii.com and www.heisenberg.com.
About Norton Healthcare, Inc.
For more than 130 years, Norton Healthcare’s faith heritage has guided its mission to provide quality health care to all those it serves. Today, Norton Healthcare is a leader in serving adult and pediatric patients from throughout Greater Louisville, Southern Indiana, the commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. For more information, visit www.nortonhealthcare.com.
