What is “Internal Flexible Staffing” and Why You Should Care?

As health care organizations continue to grapple with a shortage of qualified clinicians to staff their hospitals, many are turning to a relatively new concept that works especially well for bigger organizations: internal flexible staffing.

Under this model, organizations create pools of clinicians with the necessary credentials who have been vetted by human resources, just as a full- or part-time employee would be, to fill vacancies in departments such as respiratory care as they arise. Clinicians who staff these pools gain more control over where they work and when they work, and organizations can lower their reliance on expensive external staffing agencies to provide staff when their hospitals run short.

These pools of temporary workers help hospitals when the census surges due to seasonal flu or other illnesses, weather events, or an increase in surgeries or elective procedures.  They also come into play when a greater number of staff call out due to illness or when turnover or burnout leads to excessive vacancies.

Clinicians who staff these pools can be directed to the areas where they are needed the most based on their experience and areas of expertise, such as home health, urgent care, or specialty units.

Advocates of the concept point to numerous benefits for health care organizations and clinicians alike:

Cost reduction: By relying on an internal pool, the organization avoids the higher costs of using agency staff to step in when a hospital is shorthanded

Improved staff satisfaction: Using internal staffing pools to fill in when necessary helps ensure mainline staff have the support they need to care for patients, thus improving job satisfaction and reducing burnout and turnover.

 High-quality care: Because the hospital vets clinicians accepted into the pool, it knows which clinicians will be best suited to which areas of the hospital, helping maintain consistency in care.

 Clinicians like the flexibility: Clinicians who hire on for these pools enjoy a variety of assignments and the ability to make their own schedules.

 A multigenerational workforce: Internal float pools can support a more multigenerational workforce, as they attract mid-to-late career clinicians who want to slow down but not yet leave the workforce completely, as well as younger clinicians who may need a more flexible work arrangement while they have young children at home or pursue higher degrees.

 Recaptures clinicians who have left full-time employment: Other clinicians who find internal staffing pools attractive include those who have moved on to other jobs in health care — such as teaching in a respiratory care program or working for industry — but still want to keep their clinical skills sharp.

Keeping clinicians on the hospital roster through internal flexible staffing can be a win-win for the organization and for the clinicians who opt to take advantage of the opportunity.