Temp staff costs push up Samaritan expenses

MOSES LAKE — The effort to recruit employees to fill open positions at Samaritan Healthcare may not bear fruit until 2024. Samaritan Chief Administrative Officer Alex Town said temporary employee expenses have not dropped as much as hospital officials hoped.

“We recognize the challenge with temporary manpower is a bit frustrating, because we were hoping this year we’d see some downturn,” Town said during the June 20 Samaritan board meeting. “But I would say it’s pretty safe to say that we’re probably going to end up spending about the same as last year, if not more. In talking to other organizations, they’re all in the same boat, if not worse.”

Temporary worker expenses were $1.15 million in May, and about $5 million for 2023 through the end of May. Samaritan spent about $10.82 million on temporary employees in 2022.

Hospital officials spent about $1.37 million for temporary employees, including a lot of temporary nurses, in the acute care (medical-surgical) unit in the first five months of 2023. Temps for the obstetrics (mother-baby) unit cost about $592,200, and about $568,600 for the emergency room.

Temporary employee expenses for the intensive care unit were about $501,600 through the first five months of 2023. They were about $478,000 for the laboratory.

Steven Brooks, Samaritan’s chief human resources officer, said of the 40 temporary employees at the hospital currently, 32 are nurses.

Hospital officials have been working on recruitment efforts, Brooks said.

“Towards the end of 2022 we were averaging about one to two new RN hires per month, so very few,” Brooks said. “The last four months we’ve averaged about five consistently every month, so we are seeing an uptick in our RN applications. (With) that, coupled with some of our international staffing efforts, we should start seeing a decline, hopefully within the next two or three months.”

Even with increased expenses Samaritan finished May with a profit, making about $523,500 during the month. The hospital has generated a net profit of about $2.31 million for 2023 through the end of May.

Town said Samaritan is experiencing a shift in its reimbursement, with more patients covered by Medicaid and fewer by commercial insurance. Historically insurance coverage has been split pretty evenly between Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurers, each at about 33%. That has shifted in 2023, with about 37% of patients being covered by Medicaid.

Typically Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement are lower than commercial insurance, Town said.

“You’re talking millions of dollars that you’re not going to get reimbursed, because of the change in that payer mix,” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.