An increasing number of hospitals are creating in-house staffing teams to cope with the nurse shortage and beat private healthcare staffing firms at their own game, Kaiser Health News reported. Cost is a concern, as contract labor expenses are nearly 500% higher than they were prior to the pandemic, KHN reported citing a report by the American Hospital Association. However, traditional travel nursing does have its draws for workers, and some hospitals don’t believe they will ever use zero staffing firms.