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From 600+ Travelers to Zero Agency Usage: How Adventist Health Care Rebuilt Its Nursing Workforce
The Challenge
Like many health systems, Adventist HealthCare emerged from COVID-19 with a workforce deeply dependent on expensive travel nurses. At the peak, the system was running 600+ agency nurses across its facilities, a level of premium labor that was financially unsustainable and culturally destabilizing.
In January 2022, Adventist had 325+ open RN roles and was concurrently running 514 travel RNs.
Our Solution
Key Tactics:
- 'Welcome Home' Campaign: Targeting and converting RNs who recently left the health system but were eligible for rehire.
- Agency Conversion Campaign: Engaging current travel nurses with the organizational culture to convert them to full-time employees (FTEs).
- Internal Agencies: Establishing two internal agencies to support the Emergency Department (ED) and Behavioral Health Department, the areas facing the most hiring challenges.
- International Nurse Recruitment: Expanding efforts to recruit international nurses.
About the Travel Nurse Reduction Program:
Our Travel Nurse Reduction Program is designed to help organizations break free from the high costs of premium labor by dedicating specialized recruiting resources solely to traveler positions. With over 30 years of healthcare recruiting experience, we leverage our extensive knowledge and proven strategies to implement traveler reduction programs for healthcare partners nationwide.
Our comprehensive seven-step program begins with a thorough analysis of travel nurse usage and the establishment of clear, achievable goals. We then execute targeted recruitment efforts to reduce reliance on travelers and replace them with full-time employees.
On average, our program saves health systems over $3 million annually, delivering substantial financial relief and fostering a more stable and committed workforce.
Our Results
In 9 months, Adventist more than doubled RN hires and reduced the number of open RN roles by 35%. The Welcome Home and travel-nurse conversion campaigns resulted in more than 50 permanent RN hires. Traveler utilization dropped by 61%, generating annual savings exceeding 8 million. Read the full decade-long partnership context: Hueman RPO Future-Proofs Adventist HealthCare’s TA Strategy.
