This message was emailed to all Ballad Health team members on Tuesday, Feb. 13, from Alan Levine, Ballad Health President and CEO.
Dear Colleagues:
As health systems throughout the nation continue to navigate the challenges of an historic shortage of nurses, Ballad Health has taken several important steps we believe will continue to help reduce the strain on our nursing staff.
Make no mistake, we know that labor shortages are impacting several areas in addition to nursing, and steps have been taken, with some success, to mitigate the impact on our team. But nowhere is the national labor shortage more directly impacting patient care than in the nursing profession. The Council of State Boards of Nursing has predicted that from the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic through 2027, approximately 900,000 nurses will leave the profession.
Ignoring these predictions is not an option for us and we must continue to act. Steps we have already taken have helped to stabilize our nursing turnover such that it has now been consistently below what it was before COVID, which is very positive.
For instance, Ballad’s nursing turnover before the pandemic was 15.3%, below the 17% national average. During the pandemic, our turnover increased to as high as 28%. Due to our collaborative efforts, our turnover over the past year has dropped to as low as below 15%, while the most recent national data shows the nursing turnover rate remains at or near 20%. While Ballad Health’s trends show we are recovering faster than the national average, and while we have had success filling many open nursing positions, we must stay ahead of it so we can fill as many of the open positions as possible, thus continuing to reduce our reliance on contract labor – something we all want to see continue.
The solution to the national nursing shortage will not materialize on its own. As a major health system, there is a role we can and should play, in partnership with academic institutions in our region. Here are some of the steps already taken:
- Our innovative partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and local schools to launch Ballad Health Academy – a $15.3 million investment in this region designed to provide high school students an accelerated pathway to healthcare careers.
- A more than $30 million capital investment into the creation and sustainability of 13 high-quality childcare centers throughout the Appalachian Highlands to meet the needs of our team members.
- The creation of a Nurse Fellowship Program designed to prepare nursing students to enter the workforce as new graduate registered nurses.
- The development of our Nurse Ambassador program intended to recruit newly graduated nurses from outside our traditional geographic region.
- The development of our internal staffing agency which is similar to the model of national staffing agencies.
- Investment in nursing and allied health programs at several local colleges and universities to help increase the pipeline of new nurses and other needed professionals.
- Our continued support of the popular Balladeer Children’s Program, which has now enrolled more than 2,800 children representing 1,600 of our team members.
- Investment of $10 million to create the Appalachian Highlands and Tennessee Center for Nursing Advancement at East Tennessee State University to help develop accelerated pipeline programs to increase the number of new entrants to the nursing profession.
Many of these ideas came from our nursing team members as we have collaborated to develop solutions. Together, we must do more.
At the Ballad Health Board of Directors meeting Jan. 30, management recommended, and the Board approved, a more than $33 million investment into nursing pay adjustments, and to some adjustments for certain support roles. This is on top of the nearly $100 million Ballad Health is already spending annually on pay adjustments implemented since 2021. This is a major investment in nursing and other targeted positions, which is truly necessary for us to be able to meet the needs of our patients going forward.
After a comprehensive review, and with the support of our Board of Directors, we have decided to provide salary increases to specific positions to remain competitive for new hires and retention in these nursing and other targeted roles. Those who are impacted by these changes will be notified by your supervisors or human resources. We also continue to monitor the market and, as always, will make appropriate adjustments when the market conditions warrant.
As always, thank you for your ongoing commitment to our mission, and to the values we all seek to bring each day – caring, honesty, respect, quality, creativity and faith.
God Bless.
Alan
