Hospital systems create own staffing agencies

More hospital systems are starting in-house staffing agencies to contend with the nursing shortage. Health systems offer a variety of options to attract nurses, including offering weeklong or multiple-week assignments at a hospital and then working a similar schedule at a different facility. Other health systems offer self-scheduled shifts in several locations. The in-house staffing agencies strive to attract nurses with enough pay and flexibility to reduce their reliance on nurses from outside agencies. Allegheny Health Network Chief Nurse Executive Claire Zangerle, DNP, RN, an AONL board member, notes the system’s mobile unit offers higher hourly pay to attract agency nurses back to the health system. The mobile employees move among hospitals but still have access to full benefits and “can sleep in their own bed,” Zangerle said. (Kaiser Health News article, 12/15/22)