Investments in team members, education and technology help strengthen workforce and improve care across the Appalachian Highlands
The big picture: Ballad Health’s investment in its workforce has reduced its nursing turnover rate from 30% during the COVID-19 pandemic to below 12%. In a recent interview with Becker’s Hospital Review, Ballad Health Chairman and CEO Alan Levine shared how that shift has stabilized the system’s workforce, improved patient experience and strengthened its care for patients.
By the numbers
- 12%: Ballad Health’s current nursing turnover rate, down from 30% during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 9: Number of early learning centers Ballad Health has opened to provide childcare support for team members and their families
- $16 million: Bloomberg Philanthropies’contribution to Ballad Health Academy, which helps sustain a homegrown healthcare workforce
- $8 million: Investment in technology at the health system’s Clinical Command Center (CCC)
- Nearly 7,000: Number of transfers the CCC has eliminated to its tertiary hospitals, thanks to tele-specialist access to the system’s smaller facilities
Why it matters
- Increased nursing wages, access to childcare and investment in a local pipeline of healthcare professionals have bolstered the health system and improved care for patients in the region.
- Levine credits improved patient satisfaction ratings at Ballad Health hospitals, in part, to the health system’s success in retaining staff.
- Three years ago, the system’s hospitals averaged 2.5 stars on Google reviews, while some now have ratings as high as 4.6 out of 5 stars.
- Workforce stabilization has also helped the health system generate a 4.1% operating margin in FY26.
Alan Levine on Ballad Health’s progress and priorities
- “The success story there is that our nursing turnover has dropped to below 12%. That’s well below the industry median, so we finally stabilized the staffing, and everything flowed from that.”
- “When you read the comments on those Google reviews, you see such amazing positive feedback, and that’s a direct result of the investments we made in nursing.”
- “As a rural and non-urban system, what we learned and realized after COVID was that we cannot rely on recruitment alone to fill our needs, whether it’s physicians or clinical team members. We have to find ways to grow our own,” he said of the Ballad Health Academy.
- “Our No. 1 priority for deploying technology is whether it makes things easier for our labor force.”
Building the workforce close to home
- Ballad Health Academy introduces students to healthcare career pathways as early as middle school.
- The health system has lowered its working age to 16 years old, allowing high school students to gain hands-on experience in clinical settings while working towards certifications.
Technology that supports patients and caregivers
- Significant investment in the technology at the Clinical Command Center has increased access to tele-specialists and eliminated unnecessary transfers to the system’s larger emergency departments.
- New AI tools are improving outcomes for stroke care patients, reducing the average time from patient arrival to head scan to an average of eight minutes.
Learn more
You can read Levine’s full interview with Becker’s Hospital Review here.
