Pacific Northwest nonprofit health system Providence and group purchaser Premier Inc. are joining up with a CommonSpirit Health-affiliated workforce development platform to expand its educational resources to “hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals nationwide,” according to a Wednesday announcement.
Dignity Health Global Education (DHGE) is a joint venture between CommonSpirit and education network Global University Systems established in 2019. It partners with academic institutions and healthcare industry subject matter experts to build customized online programs and other workforce development tools customized for healthcare organizations.
The new partners didn’t specify the size of their investment but emphasized the reach and scale of each organization: Providence’s 52 hospitals and nearly 120,000 employed caregivers and Premier’s alliances with 4,400 health systems and 250,000 providers, not to mention CommonSpirit’s own 142 hospitals and over 150,000 employees.
“We are thrilled to now have two of the top three not-for-profit health systems, as well as one of the largest healthcare group purchasing organizations in America, as partners and investors,” DHGE CEO Andrew Malley said in a statement. “With our shareholder expertise and involvement, alongside our world-class digital platform, DHGE will offer more healthcare organizations expert-driven education with best-in-class delivery, supported by an increasing amount of data, assessment and reporting.”
The investments nail a clear target on workforce shortages that have limited operations and inflated expenses across the healthcare sector.
The announcement cited data from a March NSI Nursing Solutions report (PDF) citing a 6.4% increase in the number of hospital and staff registered nurses that either switched employers or exited the field in 2021, while a third of all new hires departed within their first year.
“Employee turnover has been a significant factor in increased hospital costs, and our own research shows that providers today are spending $24 billion more per year than they were in 2020 to attract and retain clinical talent,” Leigh Anderson, president of performance services at Premier, said in a statement. “Our partnership and investment in DHGE aligns with our mission to improve the health of communities, with an eye toward solutions that improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.”
While monthly numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show a steady uptick in new healthcare hires, it’s still an uphill battle in the wake of more than 330,000 physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant and other clinician departures during 2021.
In its most recent quarterly earnings, CommonSpirit outlined staff resilience and workforce expansion as “key strategic priorities” going forward and listed ongoing efforts around staff retraining, wellness, new staff identification, site transfers and new graduate medical education relationships and residency programs.
Providence has also been among the most outspoken large systems regarding labor costs and clinical workforce shortages. Last September, the health system announced a $220 million investment toward workforce hiring and retention and stressed that it was still looking to recruit “essential” caregiver roles while axing administrative staff.
“Investing in professional development for the nation’s caregivers will assist us in stabilizing the workforce,” Sylvain Trepanier, Providence’s chief nursing officer, said in a statement.