March 9, 2023 – The Hospital Vitals report from Synellis and the AHA found that total contract labor expenses jumped 258% from 2019 to 2022. This data was gathered from more than 1,000 hospitals and health systems, based on an analysis of year-end 2022 data.
This report lays out the financial repercussions hospitals and health systems faced amid increased reliance on contract labor to fill gaps in staffing and meet the growing demand for patient care. Based on comparisons from 2019 to 2022, the report found the median contract wage rate paid to staffing firms increased nearly 57%. Over the three-year period, contract labor full-time equivalents surged nearly 139%.
The report said, “Essentially, organizations had to use more contract labor while also paying exponentially more for the contract labor they used.”
Departments like nursing and emergency services saw contract full-time equivalents jump more than 180 percent per unit of service, according to the report.