Where Are the Hospital Job Candidates?

Hospitals are having trouble finding qualified help in clinical and management areas. A survey suggests there just aren't enough qualified people to fill all those jobs.

Recruiting, staffing and retention challenges are hardly breaking news in the hospital sector.

Now a new survey from the healthcare staffing firm Leaders for Today suggests that the problem is not a matter of offering more pay and perks, but that there simply aren't enough qualified people to fill all the jobs.

"Data from our newest survey shows that while the healthcare industry continues to have a number of challenges when it comes to staffing, the absence of qualified candidates remains far and away their loudest concern – a far larger issue than originally anticipated," LFT said.

The survey of 204 hospital executives found that shortages affect senior positions at all hospitals, regardless of their size or location, and the inability to find qualified candidates is putting a strain on hospital operations.

Key findings:

31% of respondents said their hospital could not find enough candidates.
24% had a quick turnaround on candidate searches but questioned the qualifications of the candidates hired.
Only 8% had positive things to say about their hospital's staffing process.
52% rated their hospital’s ability to find good people in a reasonable amount of time as "not very good."
70% said replacing management positions took anywhere from four months to one year.

The survey suggested that the shortage has strained hospital human resources departments. In large hospitals of 250 beds or more, for example, 77% of recruiters said they were asked to manage 10 or more searches at a time, and 20 or more searches 47% of the time.

Healthcare job growth has been robust throughout the new century, and so have staffing challenges.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the healthcare sector grew 19,000 new jobs in February, including 9,000 in hospitals, and that the healthcare sector has added 290,000 jobs over the past year.

There is nothing to indicate that job demands will slow anytime soon. At its current pace, federal actuaries project healthcare spending will reach $5.7 trillion by 2026 and consume nearly 20% of the gross domestic product.

Earlier this month, Moody’s Investors Service warned that "an extreme nursing shortage" and other staffing issues will negatively impact not-for-profit hospital margins.

"An aging population, increased incidents of chronic disease and alternative employment options, such as nurse staffing and traveler agencies, drive increased demand. Although the supply of nurses is expected to improve with the expanded nurse training programs and increase in the number of eligible nurse educators, it will still take three to four years for the supply to meet expected demand," Moody's analyst Safat Hannan said.

Hannan said some hospitals are attempting to reduce the need for expensive contract labor with internal nursing pools, which has its own set of drawbacks. Nursing pools can reduce the reliance on pricey contract labor, but they may lead to higher attrition and lower productivity if nurses are not effectively trained across service lines.

"Labor is the largest hospital expense and is increasing faster than total expense growth while outpacing revenue growth," Hannan says. "The lack of qualified nurses will compound these expense pressures and negatively affect hospital margins."