July 15, 2022 – Last October, at the height of the pandemic’s delta surge, Grady Memorial Hospital did something it had never done before: It paid $222 per hour to fill an empty nursing slot.
The price, paid to an agency that specializes in placing “travel nurses” in hospitals where there’s desperate need, was triple the normal rate for a temp worker in that position. But nurses were so scarce that Grady had no choice.
The delta surge is long over, but the crisis in nursing staff levels at Grady and other Georgia hospitals is still here. And hospital administrators say the attractiveness of travel nursing gigs, which offer better pay and more flexibility, is part of the problem.
In addition, the agencies that provide those travel nurses can charge a substantial profit margin on top of the hourly rate, adding to hospitals’ expenses.