"Shift goes to the lowest bidder..."

[fab4fan]

This is NOT an advertisement; it is a copy of an article. Maybe it's just me, but I find it disgusting:

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Online Shift Auction by Charles Townson and Catherine Whelchel April 2003 - Healthcare Information Many people today are eBay junkies, hooked on bidding and buying from home. We decided to use the same approach, in reverse, to help with nurse staffing at Spartanburg (S.C.) Regional Healthcare System.

Our information systems department set up a Web site where nurses can bid to work certain shifts. But in this case, the lowest bidder wins. For example, an employee might bid $40/hour to work an emergency department night shift. The next employee might bid $38/hour, and so on until the auction ends. The low bidder gets extra income and the healthcare system reaps benefits as well.

Online auctioning gives nurses options, flexibility and scheduling control, enabling them to choose desired shifts and work locations. Some of our nurses were doing extra shifts at other hospitals, and we wanted to give them the extra hours at their own facility while also covering shifts previously covered by agency nurses. Having our own nurses cover additional shifts would ensure a level of dedication and efficiency that could not be achieved with contract nurses.

Key players in planning the site were the system webmaster and nurse staffing coordinator for the internal float pool, with assistance from human resources and accounting. Guidelines were set to ensure that nurses would be qualified for the areas they bid on. The staffing coordinator placed some bids to test the site and resolve problems. Within weeks, the site was ready for use.

Pilot testing was set so only PRN (as-needed) RNs could bid, simplifying payroll issues during the trial period. At first, most shifts sold at the opening bid. In the first two months, only 12 shifts were bid on. But through word of mouth, our organization newsletter and letters to RNs homes, interest grew. Now, with the site in place for more than six months, 35 shifts have been put up for bid in a single week, with up to 10 bids on a shift.

After completion of the pilot phase, the site was opened to full and part-time RNs, and more than 150 have applied to use it. Another hospital in the system has also begun to use the application.

To use the site, nurses must have completed orientation and may not be under any disciplinary action or probation. Logins and passwords cannot be shared. Passwords are program-generated only after a completed online application is approved.

The auction is accessible at Spartanburg's site (http://www.spartanburgregional.com/employment/auction.htm). For the time being, employees cannot place bids while at work inside the system. They must have a unique e-mail address outside the system, which may be a limiting factor for nurses who do not have Internet capabilities at home.

The site is very easy to use. Nurses can search for open shifts by date or work area. The opening bid is set to less than what the hospital would pay to a nursing agency but in the range of what an agency would pay so we can compete with agencies while eliminating associated overhead costs. Rates are set in 50-cent increments to eliminate penny-by-penny bids.

Shifts appear on the site 17 days in advance. The winner is notified electronically 72 hours before the shift. Nurse managers may check to see if there is a bid for a given shift but, because of system security, cannot tell who has bid. At present, winners must call the staffing office to confirm the shift.

The site does not integrate with hospital systems, so payroll remains a manual check-request process since every rate is different. Personnel who oversee the site each day perform this check-and-balance procedure. As the site becomes more active, automatic feed into the payroll system will become a necessity. The positives far outweigh the costs of establishing and maintaining the auction site. More shifts are covered internally, by personnel who have a working relationship with the healthcare system. The site keeps technically savvy nurses engaged, and we hope that visiting the auction site will become part of their routine. Nurses can make extra money at a competitive rate and can schedule their time in advance.

We are considering adding LPNs and other positions to the auction site, and ancillary departments with staffing shortages, such as respiratory therapy and radiology, are also interested in trying out the system. The site has truly provided an innovative solution to our staffing complexities. It is a win-win-win situation: patients receive care, nurses have choices and the organizations saves agency expenditures. Charles Townson is chief operating officer and Catherine Whelchel is chief nursing officer, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, Spartanburg, S.C.

Copyright © 2003. The McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved

[-jt]

I dont understand why the "prize" has to go to the LOWEST bidder and why nurses are underselling themselves. Theres a SHORTAGE of nurses who are willing to work in hospitals!! The ones who are still willing should be writing their own ticket - not undercutting themselves. I swear there must be something inherently wrong with the mentality of people who become nurses. What other profession would do this to itself? Why do we feel we arent deserving and have to constantly be the ones to compromise? This lowest-bid-wins thing a just another way to lower nurses wages.

Look at it this way: Agency nurses are making about $55/hr - not to mention what the hospital pays to the agency itself. All together it might be more like $80/hr (or more) that the hospital is spending on agency & agency nurses. So it wants to use less agency. Fine but if it was paying $50-80/hr to the agency, staff nurses do not have to go as low as $30/hr for the hospital to save money. Youre underselling yourselves in a time of low supply and high demand. Its economically illogical! (and not very business savvy either). Geeezzzz... even the guy who built the deck in my backyard last summer charged an extra $500 because of the high demand for his kind of work that time of year. And I had to pay it cause he was the only one available!

A suggestion for those who want to engage in bidding for work -

Value yourselves and make a pact with each other that you will not bid below a certain number.... and make it a number that is just a little less than what the hospital is paying the agency nurse AND the agency combined.

Need a starting point?

New grad ADNs in NYC are starting their first RN jobs with a base salary of about $30/hr already. Time and a half for overtime comes to $45/hr - excluding BSN and shift differentials. If all your nurses bid no lower than $45/hr - $50/hr, that IS the lowest bid and they have to pay it, whether the nurse is p/t or not, no? The hospital is STILL saving tons of money and the nurses would be getting more of what theyre worth - without selling each other out.

[cannoli]

I'm only commenting here on agency pay which differs greatly depending on what part of the country one is in.

I make only $26.00 an hour as an RN working agency.

[Andy RN]

I read the same article. As a nurse who works primarily with other nurses. I found the article unappealing at first, but I realized that was my own prejudices. Upon further review of the article it states that the hospital who initiated that policy also reduced its nurse vacancy rate from 11% to 4%. that is a huge difference. The option also gave more of an incentive to it's incumbant employees and created nits which were more well staffed. I think it is a good idea and that more hospitals should use that incentive for their employees. It would reduce Agency usage.. But that is just my thoughts...

[mattsmom81]

My facility has utilized this method in the past to get last minute staff...by posting a bonus shift list ...where signers would get an extra hundred bucks, say, to pick it up.

They stopped doing this and now their practice is contract nurses through the corporate owned agency.

They seem to valu these corporate contractors more than the facility PRNs.

[Andy RN]

Matt,

I agree with you that it must be pretty frustrating for you to see contract nurses working in your unit. And I also agree that it would appear that your institution values them more than you. Although I would like to play devil's advocate for a momonet. I would bet my pension that your facility is doing the same thing as many other instiutions are, and that would be to ensure their incumbant staff is well covered. Those same contract nurses actually make less that a permanent staff nurse in the long run. Usually there is no benefits attached to their employment other than health insurance. They have no 403b and no way of climbing that clinical ladder. You are 100% right when you say success is the best revenge, but hospitals are trying to balance their increasing patient loads and providing their staff with quality employment. If you cannot staff a hospital, nurses would have many more issues to speak of. The solution is to back each other up and support those who are within your profession. Welome those contract nurses, and they will help you out. Also remember that what ever they are making, at the end of the day subtracting all the benefits and privilages you have as a FT employee you make a great deal more per hour than they do.

Just some food for thought.

Sincerely,

Andrew L. Harer RN, BSN

[cannoli]

As an RN, I make $26.00 an hour working agency. When I worked at the same hospital as a PRN employee, I made $25.00 an hour and that was with a $2.00 shift differential included. On the weekend, I made $28.00 an hour as a PRN employee. Through the agency the weekend pay is $27.00.

You may think agency makes big bucks, and someplaces maybe they do, but I don't, and I don't have the benefits of 401K, etc.

[Andy RN]

Connoli,

I believe in my statement I did recognize that agency personell do not have benefits afforded to them. In fact I was arguing in your behalf. In fact at a rate of $27 per hour you are actually in the top fifth percentile for nurses. I would like to know where you work. If you are in NYC then you are comparing yourself to a system which needs to pay at higher rates due to higher standards of living. I gues I have a few more questions for you. How many years have you been a nurse? Do you work many off shifts? Is there mandatory overtime being implemented where you are? What would you say is a fair salary for your work? Keep in mind at 27 or 28 dollars an hour you are grossing almost 60 grand per year. Im my oppinion that is alot of money. So in summation, not to be offensive, I do not beleive you truly read my reply to Matt. In my reply I stated the need for nurses to work together despite contract or internal.

[cannoli]

Andy RN, my reply was not directed to you, and I am not arguing with you, I was making a statement in general, as a previous post indicated that agency make $55 an hour. I read your reply to Matt and as I said I was not replying directly to you.

I don't gross $60,000 a year, for 2003 my gross is $2979.00.

One shouldn't assume.