Dive Brief:
- Banner Health is seeking to hire more than 1,000 jobs, Becker's Hospital Review reported.
- The company recently completed a major restructuring that eliminated 500 jobs, including its chief administrative officer. The overhaul also resulted in a new position, chief strategy officer, and shifted more responsibilities to the chief operating officer and chief clinical officer.
- "Because of our size, we are always recruiting for those positions including our more hard-to-fill jobs such as specialty nursing [and] physical and occupational therapy," Banner spokesperson David Lozano was quoted in Becker's.
Dive Insight:
In March, Banner said it hopes to save $65 million this year through a voluntary worker termination program.
Uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act has pushed health systems to look for new ways to reduce spending, and labor costs are one means try and shore up finances. In 2016, Catholic Health Initiatives and MD Anderson Cancer Center both laid off staff in response to operating losses.
But healthcare hiring continues to grow. Demand for doctors and nurses has outpaced supply for some years now and shows no signs of abating. In a recent survey by RNnetwork, nearly half of the 600 nurses canvassed said they were thinking about leaving the profession, most due to feeling overworked. And the American Association of Medical Colleges estimates the country’s physician shortage could exceed 100,000 by 2030.
Growing awareness of these shortages has spurred healthcare organizations to develop new strategies to meet patient care needs, from allowing nurse practitioners to practice independently and easing some administrative burdens to the aforementioned special hiring incentives.