The University of Toledo (Ohio) Medical Center said university officials are paying more than $83.1 million to purchase outside services, including paying third-party vendors to provide staff for its laboratory and tech positions, Toledo Blade reported Sept. 27.
According to budget documents obtained by the publication, that amount is nearly $30 million — or 55 percent — more than the roughly $53 million budgeted for the year, and about $11 million more than the $72 million budgeted for 2022.
For contract employee staffing, UTMC saw an increase of $7.4 million.
"As we were increasing wages and trying to attract these folks, our competition was doing the same thing," Richard Swaine, CEO of UTMC said during a board of trustees finance committee meeting Sept. 25. "It was really just a continuing struggle to fight for a very small pool of talent... It's just the darn market is just moving so quickly on us, and we're trying to keep up."
According to UTMC's 2023 budget, roughly 40 agency employees are on contract, compared to 20 contracted in fiscal year 2022.
University officials are aiming to reduce the usage of third-party vendors in 2024.