Hospitals Preparing for Flu Season Early: Lock in Your Travel Assignment Now
As the summer months fade and the pandemic continues, healthcare facilities are preparing early for the 2020-2021 flu season and there’s been a steady increase of travel nursing and allied health jobs nationwide. “Hospitals across the country are beginning to bring up concerns of what will happen with the combination of schools opening, COVID and the flu,” said Jennifer Pomietlo, VP of Strategic Development at StaffDNA, the fastest-growing healthcare staffing platform. “They anticipate needing even more travelers due to this and want to be prepared earlier than past years.” Anticipating an influx of patients for both coronavirus and influenza, The New York Times keyed this season as a possible “Twindemic.” Flu season typically peaks between January and February but this year could be very different. During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the flu peaked by October. If that occurs this year, hospitals could be strained. That is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield’s biggest fear. Here’s how the possible Twindemic is impacting healthcare travel jobs. Early High Demand Travel nursing and allied health assignments for flu season typically begin posting around October but under the current situation, there is a record number of healthcare jobs, according to StaffDNA’s Job Board, which updates all positions across the country in real-time. Whether located in COVID-19 hotspots or not, hospitals across the country are adding staff to prepare and relieve over-worked staff. The top nursing specialties include ICU, Medical-Surgical, Telemetry and PCU/IMC. Openings for Emergency Room nurses are also ramping up ahead of flu season. Top Travel Nurse Specialties & Highest Pay Packages* RN, ICU 1,050 Unique Jobs Paying up to $4,400/week RN, MS 750 Unique Jobs Paying up to $3,552/week RN, TELE 550 Unique Jobs Paying up to $3,712/week RN, PCU/IMC 325 Unique Jobs Paying up to $3,886/week RN, ER 250 Unique Jobs Paying up to $3,627/week Assignments for Operating Room nurses and surgery-related positions typically increase leading up to the end of the year for elective surgeries. This year, assignments and locations could vary depending on local and state guidelines regarding elective surgeries if there’s another surge in COVID-19 cases and stay-at-home orders. There are also positions open for more focused specialties such as CVICU, Labor & Delivery and Cath Lab RNs. Travelers interested in these roles may need to be more flexible on location to get the higher pay packages. Top Travel Allied Positions* Respiratory Therapist 150 Unique Jobs Paying up to $2,746/week Certified Surgical Technician 175 Unique Jobs Paying up to $2,446/week *Data is according to StaffDNA, the Digital Marketplace for Healthcare Careers, as of 9/8/20. Positions are updated in real-time on the StaffDNA app and Job Board. See all details upfront and personalize pay packages in the app (no registration required).
Short-Staffed Nursing Homes See Drop In Medicare Ratings (KHN)
By Jordan Rau and Elizabeth Lucas, Kaiser Health News The federal government accelerated its crackdown on nursing homes that go days without a registered nurse by downgrading the rankings of a tenth of the nation’s homes on Medicare’s consumer website, new records show. In its update in April to Nursing Home Compare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gave its lowest star rating for staffing — one star on its five-star scale — to 1,638 homes. Most were downgraded because their payroll records reported no registered-nurse hours at all for four days or more, while the remainder failed to submit their payroll records or sent data that couldn’t be verified through an audit. “Once you’re past four days [without registered nursing], it’s probably beyond calling in sick,” said David Grabowski, a health policy professor at Harvard Medical School. “It’s probably a systemic problem.” It was a tougher standard than Medicare had previously applied, when it demoted nursing homes with seven or more days without a registered nurse. “Nurse staffing has the greatest impact on the quality of care nursing homes deliver, which is why CMS analyzed the relationship between staffing levels and outcomes,” the agency announced in March. “CMS found that as staffing levels increase, quality increases.” The latest batch of payroll records, released in April, shows that even more nursing homes fell short of Medicare’s requirement that a registered nurse be on-site at least eight hours every day. Over the final three months of 2018, 2,633 of the nation’s 15,563 nursing homes reported that for four or more days, registered nurses worked fewer than eight hours, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. Those facilities did not meet Medicare’s requirement even after counting nurses whose jobs are primarily administrative. CMS has been alarmed at the frequency of understaffing of registered nurses — the most highly trained category of nurses in a home — since the government last year began requiring homes to submit payroll records to verify staffing levels. Before that, Nursing Home Compare relied on two-week snapshots nursing homes reported to health inspectors when they visited — a method officials worried was too easy to manipulate. The records show staffing on weekends is often particularly anemic. CMS’ demotion of ratings on staffing is not as severe as it might seem, however. More than half of those homes were given a higher rating than one star for their overall assessment after CMS weighed inspection results and the facilities’ own measurement of residents’ health improvements. That overall rating is the one that garners the most attention on Nursing Home Compare and that some hospitals use when recommending where discharged patients might go. Of the 1,638 demoted nursing homes, 277 were rated as average in overall quality (three stars), 175 received four stars, and 48 received the top rating of five stars. Still, CMS’ overall changes to how the government assigns stars drew protests from nursing home groups. The American Health Care Association, a trade group for nursing homes, calculated that 36% of homes saw a drop in their ratings while 15% received improved ratings. “By moving the scoring ‘goal posts’ for two components of the Five-Star system,” the association wrote, “CMS will cause more than 30 percent of nursing centers nationwide to lose one or more stars overnight — even though nothing changed in staffing levels and in quality of care, which is still being practiced and delivered every day.” The association said in an email that the payroll records might exaggerate the absence of staff through unintentional omissions that homes make when submitting the data or because of problems on the government’s end. The association said it had raised concerns that salaried nurses face obstacles in recording time they worked above 40 hours a week. Also, the association added, homes must deduct a half-hour for every eight-hour shift for a meal break, even if the nurse worked through it. “Some of our member nursing homes have told us that their data is not showing up correctly on Nursing Home Compare, making it appear that they do not have the nurses and other staff that they in fact do have on duty,” LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit medical providers including nursing homes, said last year. Kaiser Health News has updated its interactive nursing home staffing tool with the latest data. You can use the tool to see the rating Medicare assigns to each facility for its registered nurse staffing and overall staffing levels. The tool also shows KHN-calculated ratios of patients to direct-care nurses and aides on the best- and worst-staffed days. This story originally appeared on Kaiser Health News. Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Travel Healthcare Jobs: Market Healthy In April As Seasonal Shift Continues
It’s not just the grass that’s growing greener in April—recruiters and industry insiders say the job market is still quite hot following a job-heavy March. Travel nurses and allied healthcare professional are also officially out of their winter contracts and on the hunt for spring and summer positions, meaning competition has picked up significantly and created a healthy, active market for recruiters and agencies. There are plenty of states to choose from this month for job opportunities, but Florida sticks out as the most odd choice, said David Kinslow, a senior client advisor for LiquidAgents Healthcare. Florida is already one of the most popular destinations for travel healthcare professionals, and as such typically has no problems finding travelers to fill needs especially during summer vacation months. The difference this spring is because of Hurricane Michael, Kinslow said. The Category 4 storm devestated several cities in the Florida panhandle and along the coastline, and many of those communities are still recovering. This has caused serious problems when trying to find housing for travelers, but it has also caused a rare increase in job orders with higher bill rates for the state, Kinslow said. “A lot of the facilities in the panhandle are screaming for help and this also why they’re bumping up their bill rates,” Kinslow said. Travel Healthcare Jobs April 2019 Here’s a quick breakdown of the states and travel healthcare job specialties that are most-in-demand now and are expected to stay popular in April, according to data provided by staffing industry sales and recruiting representatives. Arizona RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ICU. Limited options in other specialties. Allied: Surgical techs (OR, sterile processing) Other Notes: “A new hospital opening in Phoenix has taken full-time staff away from other hospitals. Also, government facilities (Indian Health Service) are needing more help.” Arkansas RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, PCU/IMC, ICU Allied: Respiratory therapists Florida RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ICU, ER Other Notes: “Bill rates are higher in the Florida panhandle where hospitals need the most help. Georgia RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ICU. Limited options in other specialties. Allied: Surgical techs (OR, sterile processing) Other Notes: “Georgia consistently lacks RN staff after the state went compact, so opportunities are regularly available.” Illinois RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, PCU/IMC, ICU Allied: Respiratory therapists Other Notes: “Bill rates have increased to slightly above the national average now, but may come back down as positions are filled.” Indiana RN: Cath Lab, labor and delivery, PICU, PEDS, ER, ICU, telemetry Other Notes: “Not as many job needs in Indiana compared to March, but still plenty to choose from and jobs move quickly.” Kentucky RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, PCU/IMC, ICU Allied: Respiratory therapists Maine RN: Medical-surgical, OR, ICU Allied: Surgical techs (Cath Lab, OR) Other Notes: “Maine is still on fire for jobs this month. Bill rates are up by $10 at least. Portland, Maine has multiple needs. A lot of allied as well, specifically Cath Lab techs.” Michigan RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ICU Allied: Surgical techs (OR, sterile processing) Other Notes: “Warmer weather is coming in and people are venturing out more, so census is picking up at Michigan hospitals.” Missouri RN: OR, ICU, telemetry most in-demand, but all specialties are available. Allied: Respiratory therapist Other Notes: “Bill rates have increased in April, and the candidate pool is steady. St. Louis, Missouri is specifucally increasing for ICU and telemetry needs at decently high bill rates. Also, any and all ER needs are closing quick—we have the nurses but not many jobs, so they fill quickly.” Nevada RN: Medical-surgical, ER, ICU, NICU, PICU, labor and delivery Allied: Rad techs, respiratory therapists, certified surgical techs Other Notes: “Renown Health alone has 47 positions available, but the competition will start to increase as people love Reno in the summertime. It’s best to start looking now.” New Hampshire RN: OR, CVOR, ER, telemetry. Allied: Rad techs Other Notes: “OR is very hot right now and will take nurses at a high bill rate.” (Around $2,000 weekly gross on average) North Carolina RN: Medical-surgical, ER, ICU, NICU, PICU, labor and delivery Allied: Rad techs, respiratory therapists, certified surgical techs Other Notes: “The state has 150 open jobs currently as many facilities have said they have seen a patient census increase. Competition is steady, but travelers should expect it to increase as we get closer to summer since the spring and summer seasons are so enjoyable in North Carolina.” Oklahoma RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, OR, ICU Allied: Rad Techs Other Notes: “Job needs are hot when posted. Not a lot of new jobs are posted regularly, but for those that are, calls and interviews will happen ASAP.” South Carolina RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ICU, ER Texas RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, PCU/IMC, ICU Allied: Respiratory therapists Virginia RN: ICU, medical-surgical, telemetry, with a steady increase in ER needs as summer approaches Allied: Surgical assistants, surgical first assistants, certified surgical techs Other notes: “There are lots of needs, jobs are closing fast, and bill rates tend to be higher. We are beginning to see a slow increase in ER needs. Also, we are seeing an increase in allied needs.”
Travel Jobs: Competition Low, Opportunities High In March As Market Moves Into Spring
The travel healthcare job market is affected by a number of economic and environmental factors, but one of the most prevalent forces shifting job demand are the changes in season. As such, the spring season (and March in particular) represents a major transitional period for the market. Travelers are coming off of winter contracts and are looking for new opportunities in northern states that could turn into summer extensions. One could assume this would mean competition for jobs is fierce in March, but Oren Lavi with LiquidAgents Healthcare said the candidate pool is still slim despite the high number of open positions, meaning jobs are staying open for longer and are easier to book. Since the average length of most travel healthcare job contracts lasts 13 weeks, it’s reasonable to think that most travelers would have just finished their winter contracts from December and are now looking for new opportunities at the start of March. However, many travelers avoid working in December because of the holidays and instead wait until January to start a new contract. This means that, while competition is low for now, travelers can expect to see it ramp up towards the end of March and throughout April. “A lot of nurses need to make extension decisions, and once they do, the market will get flooded with available candidates,” Lavi said. Facilities are most committed to finding qualified candidates that are interested in extending through the summer, so travelers who have already found a breezy and adventurous summer vacation destination up north for their next contract are ahead of the curve. Keep an eye on states like Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington to offer enticing pay packages in March, because they may not stick around as we get closer to summer. Travel Healthcare Jobs March 2019 Here’s a quick breakdown of the states and travel healthcare job specialties that are most-in-demand now and are expected to stay popular in March, according to data provided by staffing industry sales and recruiting representatives. Arkansas RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, step-down/PCU Surgical Tech: OR, Cath Lab Illinois RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, step-down/PCU Surgical Tech: OR, Cath Lab Other Notes: Crisis bill rates were recently implemented at OSF HealthCare facilities in Illinois Indiana RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, ICU. Other Notes: Lots of openings in Indiana right now, but facilities are being more picky with candidates, so jobs are not moving as quickly as they did in February. Kentucky RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, step-down/PCU Surgical Tech: OR, Cath Lab Maine RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, ICU. Bill rates up by $10 more than usual on average. Other Notes: Maine is on fire—more than 20 medical-surgical and telemetry nurse needs have been posted in the past two weeks. Hospitals are staffing up for summer break. Nevada RN: Telemetry, OR, CVOR, ICU Surgical Tech: OR Non-Certified Surgical Tech: SPT Other Notes: ER needs are on the decline, but OR and ICU needs are picking up speed. Most positions are coming out of Reno. New Hampshire RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, ICU. Bill rates have remained high since the start of February. Other Notes: New Hampshire remains a hotspot for ICU needs offering premium bill rates. Oklahoma RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, ICU Other Notes: Not many job postings available, but when jobs open they close very fast. Quick on callbacks and interviews for qualified candidates. Pennsylvania RN: ICU, OR, medical-surgical, telemetry. Surgical Tech: OR Non-Certified Surgical Tech: SPT Other Notes: Bill rates in Pennsylvania are quite high compared to other states in the region, and have steadily increased in preparation for spring. Texas RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, step-down/PCU Surgical Tech: OR, Cath Lab
Healthcare Is Where The Jobs Are. But What Kind Of Jobs? (KHN)
By Rachel Bluth, Kaiser Health News More Americans are now employed in healthcare than in any other industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tallies job creation, says that for most of this year the health sector outpaced the retail industry. Only government, on all levels, employs more people. One of the consistent features of the BLS reports is that healthcare has reliably added thousands of jobs to the economy each month. November was no different. The healthcare industry created 32,000 jobs, adding to the 328,000 healthcare positions created since early 2017. But what kinds of jobs? Were they highly paid doctors and hospital executives or were they positions on the other end of the pay scale, such as nursing home aides and the people who enter data for billing in hospitals and clinics? It’s hard to know for sure, because the BLS monthly data measure industries not occupations and what information it does have on occupations is overly broad. For instance, it says hospitals accounted for about 13,000 jobs in November. Another 19,000 jobs were for “ambulatory” care, which is a broad term for services delivered outside of hospital systems, like in clinics and private doctors’ offices. But another set of BLS data offers additional insights. Every two years, BLS puts out a wonky set of numbers called “industry-occupation matrices,” which more finely slices job categories and predicts which will grow or shrink over the next 10 years. The most recent, from 2016, still provides a pretty accurate snapshot, according to Joanne Spetz, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco’s Institute for Health Policy Studies. Registered nurses are the fastest-growing occupation. They account for more than 25 percent of jobs in hospitals. If that share remained the same last month, 3,289 of the new hospital jobs added in November went to RNs. [protected-iframe id=”afd374bef04176b4120013d3f73733ab-7618883-99279322″ info=”//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/XoirU/5/” width=”100%” height=”500″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”] It’s likely that many of the hospital jobs went to medical assistants, who currently make up only 1.5 percent of the industry. Medical assistants are usually the people taking your vitals and helping the doctor take notes. The BLS expects about a 16 percent increase in these jobs in the next decade. “There will be a fair amount of growth in physician and surgeon employment in the next decade, but so many more medical assistants than physicians,” Spetz said. The national median pay of a registered nurse is $70,000 a year, according to more BLS data. For medical assistants, it is $32,480. Doctors’ median pay is more than $200,000. Far more of those medical assistants found work outside the hospital in the ambulatory sector: almost 1,300. There is also a good chance that in these ambulatory settings many of the newly created jobs were filled by non-medical staff. As of 2016, fewer than 30 percent of staff in ambulatory settings were workers whom Spetz calls “paper pushers.” If the trend held up, around 5,700 of the hires in November, or 30 percent of ambulatory jobs, fall into these categories. These jobs can pay as much as medical assistants. The BLS says the median income of “medical record and health information technicians” is about $39,000 a year. BLS is predicting around a 20 percent increase in “information and record clerks” and another 22 percent increase in “secretaries and administrative assistants.” But the idea that hospitals and doctors’ offices are hiring only lower-paid support staff might be overblown. The BLS figures “healthcare practitioners and technical occupations” still make up more than 37 percent of the ambulatory industry, and “health diagnosing and treating practitioners” are almost 23 percent. So nearly 70 percent of ambulatory hires last month were probably physicians or other skilled professionals like registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, social workers and personal care aides. “What we have seen over the past couple years is with the job growth in health it is not dominated by back office,” said Ani Turner, an economist who focuses on health sector labor trends with Altarum, a nonprofit health research and consulting organization. Another thing hiding in the numbers? A dissipating distinction between ambulatory and hospital care. Traditionally, hospital jobs were pretty straightforward; they referred to the doctors, nurses and support staff who worked in hospitals. But as business models shift, more care is given outside of hospital walls, something not reflected in employment numbers that split health into two distinct categories. Employees who staff the clinics, surgery centers, labs and imaging centers run by hospitals are counted as hospital staff, Turner said, though they work in outpatient settings. So those 13,000 new hospital jobs the BLS cited last month may not reflect real-world trends about where hiring happens. “Whether in physicians’ offices, free-standing clinics or hospital outpatient clinics, you’ll see it as the two separate settings, but the same trend,” Turner said. This story originally appeared on Kaiser Health News. Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Virginia Medicaid Expansion Enrollment Exceeds Projections
State officials had estimated 300,000 newly eligible Virginians would sign up for Medicaid coverage in the first 18 months of expansion, which takes effect on Jan. 1, but that estimate has increased based on the current pace of enrollment. As of Thursday morning, 140,643 adults now eligible for coverage under the expansion have enrolled in Medicaid, said Christina Nuckols, a media relations manager with the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Service. State officials updated their estimate to 375,000 total enrollments by July 2020. That’s still 25,000 short of the 400,000 estimated Virginians who fall within the coverage requirements. Under the Affordable Care Act, states that expand Medicaid allow coverage for people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $16,750 a year for a disabled person or able-bodied adult and $28,700 for a family of three. Virginia residents, find out eligibility requirements and how to enroll in Medicaid here >> A combination of automatic enrollments and streamlined enrollment processes for residents the state already knew were eligible—like those who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits—are some of the reasons why the pace of signups have exceeded expectations, according to a Washington Post report. As part of the expansion, the federal government is expected to cover 90 percent of the cost of the program, to the tune of $2 billion annually. Virginia will foot its portion of the expansion costs through two new hospital taxes, which are expected to raise $590 million in two years, $248 million of which will be used to boost the reibursment rate for acute care facilities that treat Medicaid patients. The impact on travel healthcare in Virginia Even with less than one month until thousands of new potential low-income patients gain insurance coverage, Virginia hospitals are more worried about handling current needs than worrying about future patient loads, said Imran Chaudry, a senior client advisor for LiquidAgents Healthcare. “In the Richmond area, I can tell you from the feedback I’ve gotten that every hospital is still slammed,” Chaudry said. “I’ve tried talking to all of my…clients about the Medicaid expansion, but nobody is talking about that because they are so wrapped up in their day-to-day.” Job orders for travelers in the state have increased significantly since the start of November, Chaundry said, from around 100 positions to almost 200 open positions as of Dec. 5. Most of the market growth has occurred in the northeast and eastern portions of the state, around the greater Richmond region, Chaundry said. View current Virginia travel healthcare openings on StaffDNA >> Bon Secours Health System, the largest healthcare provider in the Richmond region, merged with Cincinnati-based Mercy Health in September. The merger is expected to boost services for Bon Secours in three markets including the Hampton Roads Health system near the state’s coast, according to a Modern Healthcare report. Both the Richmond region and the Hampton Roads region serve large populations of low-income residents, which could result in a wave of demand for travelers once newly covered Medicaid patients gain coverage in January. Studies have shown that low-income populations prefer using hospital emergency departments instead of primary care doctors for their around-the-clock availability and ease of use.
Travel Healthcare Market: Openings, Competition High For Colorado Winter Jobs
A lot of healthcare travelers like to fly south for the winter, but there are still plenty who are looking for cold temperatures, snowy climates or a quick-start position with extension potential. For those reasons, Colorado has been a highly desired winter assignment destination in previous years, and 2018 is no exception. Agencies are seeing triple-digit needs for travel nurses and surgical techs across a wide variety of specializations, according to market data provided by Tailored Healthcare Staffing and LiquidAgents Healthcare. “Most of [the hospitals] are looking for nurses to start within a couple of weeks,” senior recruiting team lead Shelbie Summers at Tailored Healthcare Staffing said. “No pre-books for January starts as of yet.” Contact Shelbie Summers at Tailored Healthcare Staffing >> Geographically, most of the jobs are located in or within a one to two-hour drive distance from Denver, the state’s capital. This includes popular tourist cities like Boulder and Pueblo close to the Rocky Mountain range The most in-demand and higher paying specialties are for surgical positions which include OR, PACU and OR certified surgical techs, said Jamison Reitinger, a client advisor for LiquidAgents Healthcare. This falls in line with typical market trends, as more elective surgeries are scheduled near the end of the year in the U.S. Openings for more common specialties like medical-surgical, telemetry, ER and ICU are available, but pay is on the lower end for these positions, ranging from $1,200-1,300 weekly gross. PACU is significantly higher with bill rates at or near $90, which can translate to more than $2,000 weekly gross depending on the agency. Contact Jamison Reitinger at LiquidAgents Healthcare >> Competition is quite high for Colorado positions currently, with at least 15 to 20 submittals for core specialties (medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, OR and ICU) and 10 to 15 for less popular specialties, Reitinger said. Part of the competition is caused by nurses looking for a great winter vacation spot during the snowy season, Summers said. “There are a lot of nurses who enjoy traveling to Colorado this time of the year, so you may not see the same opening if you wait too long to submit for a position,” Summers said. Here are a few other things for travelers to consider before applying to work in The Centennial State. Colorado is part of the Nursing Licensure Compact Colorado joined the enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact this year, so travel nurses with compact licenses can work in the state with no wait and no extra licensing fees. For non-compact license holders, you can still apply for a temporary single-state license, but be aware it can take 10-14 business days to process. For RNs—prepare for a (potential) Prophecy exam “Quite a few CO hospitals require that you take a Prophecy exam before being submitted to the position, so be prepared to pass your core Prophecy testing,” Summers said. For surgical techs—get your Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) certification Colorado is unique in that surgical technologists must get their DORA certification before submitting to any jobs, Reitinger said. This will involve a fingerprint background check with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. You can apply for a DORA certification by clicking here: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/dpo Expect good snowfall this year According to weather data from the NOAA, Colorado residents should expect to see above average precipitation totals and average temperatures, especially for those in the Southeast region of the state.
Travel Jobs: Where Travelers Applied In Oct., Nov. Market Predictions
November can be a bit of an odd duck month for the travel healthcare job market. As the last month before the busiest season of the year in terms of patient census, many healthcare facilities are still trying to fill jobs needs with temporary staff. Many states still have job opportunities in the triple digits as of Nov. 13. At the same time, many travelers who were job hunting in September and October are either committed to jobs with November start dates or have pre-booked for late-December or early-January to have free time during the holidays. Travel healthcare jobs November 2018 Based on current job market data and information from staffing agency recruiters and sales representatives, we expect a slight increase in the volume of available job opportunities, but the amount of application activity should remain relatively flat. In other words, the amount travelers applying to jobs is already quite high—with dozens of submittals for competitive positions—and should stay high throughout most of the month. A good portion of the job market volume increase will come from northern and cold weather states, like Oregon, Michigan, Colorado and Wisconsin. Hospitals in these states will need to fill vacancies left by “snowbird” travelers heading south, said Jamison Reitinger, a client advisor for LiquidAgents Healthcare. “Bill rates are remaining consistently high in northern territories, except OR-RN rates, which are increasing across the board due to large OR nurse shortages in Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado,” Reitinger said. There has also been a notable increase in travel nurse jobs available in the Southeast U.S., mostly in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. A large part of the increase is due to the recent surge in EMR conversion positions available in Kentucky and West Virginia through Appalachian Regional Healthcare. The healthcare system started advertising temporary staffing needs for their hospital in late October and will need travelers through the rest of the year and into 2019, so we expect these states to see more incoming applications from travelers in November. Depending on the severity of this year’s flu season, job market activity could also increase in Southern states like Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, as those states typically see high levels of flu activity earlier than others. No major changes in the Top 10 most applied-to states The most popular states for travelers—California, Florida and Texas—retained their top spots in October, and should continue to see high application numbers for the rest of the year. South Carolina was the only new state to enter the top 10, moving up from No. 12. Georgia fell out, dropping seven ranks to No. 12. Utah makes the largest jump, Connecticut drops the farthest Utah saw the biggest surge in traveler applications by far, moving up 18 positions to No. 33 on the list. Connecticut dropped 12 spots to No. 46 October’s Top Markets California Florida Texas Michigan Tennessee North Carolina Missouri Pennsylvania Arizona South Carolina Virginia Georgia Indiana Kentucky Oklahoma Arkansas Maine Iowa Idaho Wisconsin West Virginia New Mexico Nevada Oregon Colorado Hawaii Ohio Washington Massachusetts New Jersey Illinois Louisiana Utah Alaska Minnesota Alabama Montana Kansas Maryland Mississippi New Hampshire North Dakota Nebraska Rhode Island Wyoming Connecticut Washington, D.C. Delaware New York South Dakota Vermont Editor’s note: This list is created by analyzing the number of travelers applying for jobs in these individual states and Washington D.C. Is not necessarily an indicator of traveler interest in these states and is not necessarily an indicator of job volume. Application data comes from the StaffDNA jobs database.
Travel Jobs: Where Travelers Applied In Sept., Oct. Market Predictions
October is a crucial month for the travel healthcare staffing industry as a whole. For staffing agencies, it marks the beginning of the busiest month of the year as healthcare providers recruit temporary staff at breakneck speeds. For healthcare providers, October is the final push to find as many quality temporary workers as possible to help carry operations through at least February. As a result, the last two weeks of September ramped up sharply in job board activity leading into October, mostly affecting states that are popular destinations for snowbird travelers who head for warm weather locations like Florida, Arizona and California. The record-breaking impact of Hurricane Florence also provided an unexpected boon for travel nurse needs in North Carolina, as hospitals located away from the coastline needed help dealing with the increased patient census due to hurricane evacuees. Travel healthcare jobs October 2018 In short, we expect the travel healthcare market and job board activity to remain red-hot throughout most of October, with the potential for a slight dip at the end of the month as less new needs hit the market. Most of the market activity is expected to be driven by core specialties—for travel nurses, this means a high number of medical-surgical, telemetry and ICU will be available. We are also starting to see a noticeable increase in OR job needs in the market, which is part of the expected year-end rush for scheduled elective surgeries. While most of the hospitals near the North Carolina coast have reopened in the weeks following Hurricane Florence, there is still a heavy demand for travel nurses in Charlotte and Wilmington, according to staffing agency sources. States that were popular in September will continue to remain popular this month, including California, Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee and parts of Texas. This is a result of the regular “snowbird” traveler migration and because most of those locations—excluding California—are often the first places affected by high levels of flu activity early in the season. At the same time, northern states will also see an increase in job needs as they will look to fill vacancies left by snowbird travelers. Some of those areas include Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Maine. Hospitals in northern states will also typically increase bill rates for travel contracts during this time to entice recruiters to submit quality candidates who will stay through the winter, which can translate into higher pay packages depending on what agencies travelers use. This mostly applies to the coldest areas like Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine, and not so much for winter tourist destinations like Colorado or Utah. Core specialties are expected to be the most in-demand. For travel nurses, this means medical-surgical, telemetry, and ICU. We also expect to see an increasing amount of OR job needs, as more elective surgeries take place during the end of the year. Let’s take a closer look at what we learned from the StaffDNA job board about where travelers applied in September. Michigan, Missouri enter the Top 10 Michigan jumped eight ranks from August to September, moving from No. 17 to No. 9. Missouri made a smaller climb of three ranks to take the No. 3 spot. We may see both states retain their top 10 status as winter approaches. Of the two, Missouri is most likely to drop in total traveler applications in October. The late-August hiring surge in St. Louis may have been a factor in the increase of applications for September, but we expect it to at least hang around the top 20 states for October. September’s Top Markets California Florida Texas North Carolina Georgia Pennsylvania Arizona Tennessee Michigan Missouri Virginia South Carolina Indiana West Virginia Wisconsin Arkansas Kentucky Iowa Nevada Oklahoma Maine Idaho New Mexico Oregon Hawaii Colorado Washington Ohio Illinois Alabama Alaska Massachusets Maryland Connecticut Kansas New Jersey Louisiana Minnesota Wyoming Montana New Hampshire New York Washington D.C. Mississippi North Dakota Nebraska Rhode Island South Dakota Vermont Delaware Utah
Travel Market: Florida Sees Wave Of New Jobs In September
Want to find positions in Florida now? Click here to check out the most recent posts on the StaffDNA job board. Most veteran recruiters know that Florida is a juggernaut state for travel healthcare staffing. The Sunshine State utilizes more travelers than most states, in part because of heavy winter seasonal needs. Those job needs have come back in force in the last few weeks of September, according to staffing industry sources. David Kinslow, a senior client advisor for LiquidAgents Healthcare, said he’s aware of more than 140 new jobs in the state, an increase of 80 compared to August. Agencies have anticipated this spike in job needs for several weeks. Florida ranks third in the country for most hospitals statewide according to American Hospital Directory data, and many of those facilities start recruiting for winter in late September and early October. Along with other southern states like Texas and New Mexico, Florida is a large target for “snowbirds” seeking warm weather for winter contracts. This could mean the job market will continue to ramp up through December, eventually cooling down by next January. For travelers who are interested in Florida, here are some things you should consider before working in the state this winter. 1. Florida became a nursing compact state this year Florida joined the enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact in January, so nurses who have their compact license can now work in the state and don’t have to apply for a single-state license. This only applies to nurses, so allied healthcare travelers will still have to get a single-state license. Click here to see a map of states who have joined the enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact. 2. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) uses a lot of travelers HCA is one of the largest private health systems in Florida with 50 hospitals and 31 surgery centers across the state, according to their website, and many HCA-associated facilities use a large number of travelers, according to staffing industry sources. This is good news for travelers who want some variety when picking a location, as HCA-affiliated hospitals are located in almost all major cities in the state. 3. Depending on location, cost-of-living in Florida is pretty cheap According to our Travel Nursing Pay Package Ranking List, Florida has a 99.7 rating on the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity index, which means the state is almost exactly at the national average for prices on housing, gas and other goods. However, the state average is largely affected by Miami, which is significantly more expensive than most other cities in the state. When looking at other locations like Tallahassee, Tampa or Orlando, prices drop to 5 percent or more below the national average. This is mostly because of dirt cheap rent and housing costs, which is great for travelers hoping to pocket extra money from agency housing stipends. Florida is also peppered with temporary vacation homes and seasonal vacancies, so finding proper short-term housing may be easier than in other states. 4. Expect fierce competition Just because there are lots of job opportunities in Florida doesn’t mean travelers can apply to jobs at their leisure. Hospitals in major “snowbird” states are looking to fill jobs fast, and agencies will send in qualified candidates even faster. Speed and efficiency are key to locking down a solid Florida contract, so travelers who are flexible on location and who can quickly produce necessary compliance docs will have the edge over others. 5. Beware of January pre-books David Kinslow, a senior client advisor at LiquidAgents Healthcare, said travelers should be wary about pre-booking Florida jobs with January start dates. Census numbers may not be high enough to warrant a high number of travelers, so January contracts could be canceled before the start date. While no one can perfectly predict how healthcare needs will change in the state once winter hits, it’s still safer to book early and ride out a fall contract through the winter than hope for needs to stay consistent.