jejunebug

Thank you!

Hi AZ nurses! Just wondering if you guys and gals could help me out by letting me know which hospitals use Epic charting in the Phoenix area. I know Banner uses Cerner. What does Dignity Health (St. Joe's / Chandler Regional / Mercy Gilbert) use? What about Mayo? How about Scottsdale Osborn / Shea? John C. Lincoln? IASIS? Thanks so much for helping me out!

Thanks so much for your advice. I will talk with my agencies and the hospital's HR.

Hi everybody! I'm new to agency nursing and have a few questions. I'd really appreciate any input you might have! I just accepted a job with Hospital Sunshine, which is part of a larger health care system called Happy People Health Care. The job that I accepted is in an outpatient unit and is casual and per diem: I have no guaranteed hours or schedule, and no benefits. I will likely only be able to pick up one or two shifts per week. Therefore, I would like to supplement my income by working agency. 1) Can an agency assign me to Hospital Sunshine, where I work per diem? NB: My job at Hospital Sunshine is on an outpatient procedural unit, and any agency work that I would pursue would be inpatient (ICU). I would never work on my home unit through an agency. If this is an issue and I can't work at Hospital Sunshine, then: 2) Can an agency assign me to another hospital in the Happy People Health Care system? I'm sure I'm overexplaining, but if the Happy People Health Care system operates Hospital Sunshine, Hospital Smiles, and Hospital Cheerio, can I pursue agency work at Smiles and Cheerio? I accepted my job before working any agency shifts, so I do not believe non-compete clauses apply. The agencies will not be able to claim that they "introduced" me to the hospital when I was already employed there. Thanks for reading! I appreciate all insights!

Wow. Fascinating, Ned. Thanks so much for taking all that time to respond. I'll have to read your post a few more times to fully absorb it all. I'm amazed that the average gross profit margin for agencies 10 years ago was 22%, and today has only risen by an average of 2% to 24%. I've spoken with many travel nurses who report greatly diminished returns today compared to 10 years ago - if the gross profit to the agency is roughly the same, this must be secondary to hospitals negotiating lower bill rates with agencies. I've been using the PanTravelers Calculator, but have yet to use it backwards - I will do so to better understand the allocation. I read the Calculator Manual just now - now it's time to play with the numbers! Thanks again!

So true, MMJ. My sister is an economist, so I hear those exact words echoing in my head all the time.

Hi all, I've been stealthily reading allnurses for years, and I'm finally posting. I have a question I can't seem to find an answer to: why is travel nursing today no longer as lucrative to the nurse as it used to be? How do agencies today get away with taking a bigger slice of the proverbial pie than they used to? It is my understanding that bill rates for hospitals remain approximately the same today (adjusted for wage and cost of living inflation) as they were 10 years ago. From my limited understanding, in the 1990's and early 2000's, agencies would take somewhere between 15-25% of the bill rate (a fair profit margin), and the remainder would go to the healthcare worker (RN, therapist, etc.). At some point during the economic downturn, things began to change. Today, agencies seem to be taking between 50-60%. A hypothetical bill rate for an RN might be $80. The agency takes between 50-60%, leaving an effective pay rate of $30-$40 per hour for the RN. This is taking into account base pay, per diems, housing and meal stipends, etc. A 50-60% profit margin for the agency just doesn't ring fair to me. I'm obviously missing something, because with the amount of competition in the market (over 400 travel nursing agencies), if an agency could make a profit taking a lower percentage of the bill rate, they would. And nurses would flock to that agency. Or at least, I would run to that agency. I'm sure this is an incredibly complex question that really doesn't have an answer. But I'd deeply appreciate your insights!