Flipping the Script, Hospitals Apply for Nurses

Flipping the Script, Hospitals Apply for Nurses. A hiring manager reviews nursing candidates who appear on his computer screen.

Finding near-term and long-term solutions to the nation’s nurse staffing shortage has become a top priority for health care organizations.

Two key challenges have been how to shorten the time from recruitment to hire and how to find the right fits for the many vital roles nurses play in everything from acute to specialty care.

One startup, Incredible Health, has flipped the script on traditional nurse hiring by having hospitals apply directly to nurses for permanent positions rather than the other way around. The startup charges hospitals to use the platform, but it is free to nurses.

The firm’s digital nurse hiring platform screens nurse credentials and employment preferences and uses algorithms to recognize more than 70 specialties and 250 skills, including intensive care unit (ICU) and operating room skills.

The strategy appears to be paying off. Incredible Health, now operating in 35 states, continues to grow rapidly at a time when many digital health companies are cutting back. Its 2021 revenue grew fivefold and the company now has a workforce of 180 employees.

Incredible Health recently closed an $80 million Series B funding round to fuel its national expansion, which brings the company’s total funding to date to $97 million and raises its valuation to $1.6 billion.

About 600 hospitals and health systems use Incredible Health for staffing — triple the number from three years ago — including Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Health Care, HCA Healthcare, Providence, Cedars-Sinai and Baylor Scott & White Health.

4 Factors Driving Incredible Health’s Rapid Growth

1 | Placing Nurses in the Driver’s Seat

The company’s unique approach of having provider organizations apply for candidates puts nurses in the driver’s seat as they look for the best fit for their careers.

2 | Cutting Costs

Hospitals using the platform save about $2 million per year in costs for travel nurses, overtime and human resources, Iman Abuzeid, Incredible Health’s CEO and co-founder, recently told MedCity News.

3 | Reducing Hiring Time

The platform appears to be shortening the hiring time for nurses. Hospitals typically are matched with permanent nurse hires in less than two weeks, compared with the industry average of 82 days.

4 | Focusing on Filling Permanent Positions

The company differentiates itself from competitors by filling permanent positions instead of temporary staffing.

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