Compensation costs are increasing as more systems move to a physician employment model to drive referrals and prepare for population health management. In addition, healthcare reform is driving demand for specific skill sets such as experience with electronic health-record systems.
The Cleveland Clinic, in its second-quarter earnings report, said management is focused on the recruitment and retention of qualified staff in many clinical areas as the Affordable Care Act increases the number of insured Americans seeking care. “These efforts pressure the system's salary cost structure, as well as employee-benefit costs,” according to the report.
Salaries are increasing because the demand for highly skilled healthcare workers is outstripping supply, said Jay Sage, vice president of business development at Randstad Healthcare, a staffing firm.
“Health systems are forced to look at how effectively they're managing their labor,” said Brendan Courtney, president and CEO of Parallon Workforce Management Solutions.
Ways that systems are managing labor costs include having employees take on multiple responsibilities, using data analytics to predict patient demand, and creating staffing pools of part-time or seasonal employees that can be shared across hospitals or systems.
“The whole issue of staffing strategically is going to be crucial to the bottom line,” Jones said.
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