We got started nearly a decade ago. At the time, most healthcare providers were facing serious clinical workforce challenges. Turnover and vacancy rates for nurses and allied health professionals were in the double digits. Contract labor utilization and costs were rising 25 to 50% annually for many hospitals. Providers were increasingly burdened by the inefficient process and inherent risks of managing their contingent workforce and agencies.

We were driven by the potential of innovation around standard and traditional practices. We worked with a core group of hospitals to develop Web-based software and related services that enabled them to transform their contract labor requisition, scheduling, credential management, payment, contracting and agency management processes. The result has been significant quality and process improvement, and we have delivered more than $150 million in cost savings to our client hospitals collectively.

Today, we provide our software and services to approximately 1000 acute care hospitals and staffing agencies throughout the United States. Our clients include some of the largest health systems in the country, and a full range of university, faith-based, public, for-profit, long term care, government and community hospitals. While their operations and missions vary significantly, they all have a couple things in common:

1. They are driven by a desire to provide the highest quality patient care possible.
2. They are concerned that the unprecedented workforce challenges on the horizon could inhibit their ability to do so.

We agree, and continue to be driven by the potential and the necessity of innovation. In fact, we’ve never stopped getting started. The Baby Boomer dynamics of the coming decade, combined with potential healthcare reform and increasing regulation of required clinical staffing ratios will drive unprecedented demand for nurses, physicians, and allied health professionals. The Baby Boomer effect will also drive record turnover of clinical employees and have a profound effect on clinical workforce and hospitals. The bottom line is this:

• As many as two million new nurses will have to enter our healthcare system by 2020 to meet patient demand and replace the retiring workforce. To put that in perspective, we only have 2.3 million nurses today, and less than 700,000 were needed to enter the system last decade.
• Hospitals will have to recruit, innovate, plan, aggressively manage productivity, and optimize the deployment of their clinical resources through the effective use of technology and process improvement like never before.

We are collaborating with our hospital clients and our business partners to take this challenge head-on. Yesterday’s solutions will not adequately address tomorrow’s workforce imperatives.

If you have a few minutes to share your perspective on the workforce dynamics of the coming decade or want to learn more about Prolucent, please contact us.

Jeff Ondeck
Senior Vice President
Prolucent Workforce Management