Hueman Helps Academic Hospital Decrease RT Agency Usage in 8 Months

Our Partner: A leading, not-for-profit academic medical center made up of hospitals, outpatient clinics, and physician practices

The Challenge

Our long-time RPO partner of 8+ years was experiencing a surge in respiratory therapy (RT) agency utilization during the winter flu season. Throughout this period, they relied on the services of 55 agency RT FTEs at a substantial monthly cost of approximately $1.1 million.

Our Solution

In an effort to decrease RT agency usage and costs for our partner, Hueman suggested adding a dedicated recruiter to focus exclusively on sourcing RTs. Hueman’s dedicated RT recruiter leveraged a number of tactics to increase our partner’s RT candidate volume, including:

• Creating a marketing candidate persona
• Updating job descriptions to focus on SEO optimization 
• Cold calling of purchased licensure lists
• Establishing relationships with and active involvement with local schools
• Onsite open houses

Our Results

Within two months of introducing a specialized RT recruiter, Hueman and our partner began noticing a significant improvement in recruitment and retention outcomes. This shift towards a positive net increase in employed RTs allowed our partner to reduce their reliance on Agency RTs, subsequently lowering costs.

Over the course of eight months, RT agency usage decreased from 55 agency FTEs to 29.6 agency FTEs, resulting in an overall cost savings of $350k per month.