To address pervasive challenges like rising demand for healthcare services, clinician shortages and increased regulatory oversight, some health systems are embracing on-demand workforce models.
During an executive session sponsored by CareRev at Becker's 12th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, Brandon Atkinson, CareRev's CEO and president, moderated a discussion with two leaders from Cleveland-based MetroHealth — Mary Jo Murray, MScHM, BSN, RN, vice president, hospital nursing enterprise, and Nicholas Weppler, MSN, RN, director of nursing, inpatient operations — about their experience with on-demand workforce strategies.
Three key takeaways were:
- An on-demand workforce platform offers greater flexibility to organizations and employees.
While moderating the session, Mr. Atkinson noted flexibility — highly coveted among clinicians — is one of the core benefits of an on-demand staffing model and platform technology.
"It's like Amazon Cloud for the clinician workforce. Like adjusting the amount of cloud storage you need at a given time, hospitals can elastically scale nursing capacity up and down as they need it," Mr. Atkinson said. An on-demand workforce platform also enables clinicians to work as much as they want, and where and when they want.
Panelists described this platform as having four key components: 1) a talent pool engine; 2) automated credentialing and compliance certified by The Joint Commission; 3) on-demand and intelligent shift posting; and 4) an in-app clinician communication functionality to support agility. - CareRev saves hospitals and health systems time and money.
MetroHealth has been using CareRev since May 2024 and now has 75 professionals who work through the platform, filling about 100 shifts per week.
"Before CareRev, a lot of my time was spent getting the right staff in the right place at the right time," Mr. Weppler said. "Now, I've been able to scale that back. Ownership for CareRev resides with the nursing supervisors in the staffing office."
Panelists highlighted the efficiency gains of an on-demand approach. For example, if there are 10 or 12 call-offs, those shifts can be posted and back-filled in near-real time. - Staffing more beds in a cost-effective manner leads to increased revenue and patient satisfaction.
An on-demand workforce strategy has helped MetroHealth address a longstanding issue: emergency department boarding.
"CareRev nurses cost less than agency, which makes the solution appealing," Ms. Murray said. "Once we staff previously unstaffed beds, we can get boarders into inpatient units to get appropriate care. Patients in beds means additional revenue."
There is also a direct correlation between boarding in the ED and the rate of patients who leave without being seen. "We've seen a marked decrease in 'left without being seen' since adopting CareRev," Mr. Weppler said.