Hospitals are paying $24 billion more for labor and their use of staffing firms is up 132% for full-time workers and 131% for part-time workers, according to Premier Inc., a publicly traded healthcare industry technology and consulting firm. Clinical labor costs are up by an average of 8% per patient day when compared to 2019 — translating to $17 million in additional annual labor expenses for the average 500-bed hospital. 

The analysis of data from PINC AI, Premier’s technology platform, also found use of contingency labor, or positions created to complete a temporary project or work function, is up nearly 126%. In addition, overtime hours are up 52% of September of 2021 when compared to a pre-pandemic baseline.

Hospital workers aren’t just putting in more hours, they are also working harder than ever before, according to the post. The analysis found that productivity, measured in worked hours per unit of departmental volume, increased by an average of 7% to 14% year over year across the intensive care, nursing and emergency department units.

“Observing increased overall staffing cost during a period of improved staff productivity highlights just how significant the increases in cost-per-hour have become,” Premier execs stated in a blog post.

To conduct the analysis, PINC AI compared workforce trends from October 2019 through August of 2021 using workforce data. This database contains daily data for approximately 250 hospitals, bi-weekly data for 650 hospitals and quarterly data for 500 hospitals, collectively representing most geographic and demographic segments. Workers included in the analysis were limited to clinical employees working in the emergency department, ICU or nursing areas; non-clinical staff were not included.