In light of the unprecedented shortage of nurses and recent demands for higher wages, UPMC set up its own travel agency.
“We’re seeing fluctuations that we’ve never seen before,” said Holly Lorenz, UPMC’s chief nurse executive. “We’re not unique. It’s not unique to nursing and not just to the health care workforce.”
Sales at UPMC have doubled since that time last year, Lorenz said, which seems to be a common narrative across the healthcare industry.
According to a report from US news and world reports, Dr. Victor Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine, said about 40% of health professionals were affected by burnout and significant mental health issues prior to the pandemic. That number has increased by more than half, with around 60 to 75% of workers across the country having been affected since the pandemic began. In the past 22 months, more than 20% of healthcare workers have quit, Dzau said.
These numbers are expected to continue to grow.
the American Hospital Society anticipates a shortage of around 3.2 million health professionals over the next four years.
Lorenz attributes a large part of UPMC’s sales to the high agency rates and is one of the main reasons the healthcare giant opens its travel agency on January 2nd.
With its new program, nurses will travel through UPMC facilities in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland, earning US $ 85 an hour. Surgical technicians traveling are paid $ 63 an hour. At the start of each new assignment, employees are also granted travel grants – $ 2,880 every six weeks, prepaid.
“We have lost nurses to agencies and they are looking for higher salaries,” said John Galley, UPMC’s chief human resources officer. “This is a way to reconnect with them and invite them back and invite nurses from all communities.”
The goal is to recruit 800 nurses into this new program, with the first goal of recruiting former UPMC nurses. UPMC already pays around 800 travel nurses.
“The cost is enormous and unsustainable for anyone, including UPMC,” said Galley.
Prior to the pandemic, UPMC paid most nurses around $ 85 an hour, with a real-time nurse making about $ 50 an hour, with the difference going to the agency itself. Galley said many agencies are between $ 200 and $ 280 an hour, with nurses making about $ 85.
Wages for non-travel nurses with UPMC vary, with some being around the hourly rate of $ 20 and others closer to $ 40 or more.
For example, a Registered Nurse position at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Beaver could earn between $ 28.45 and $ 38.66 an hour. A surgical technologist at UPMC Passavant Cranberry could make between $ 20.08 and $ 29.26 an hour, according to UPMC job exchange. Some positions also offer sign-up bonuses up to $ 15,000.
Many UPMC workers are not satisfied with their salaries and recently protested in November for better wages. Strikers called for a starting wage of $ 20, safer staffing and the freedom to unionize without retaliation or interference.
