The nursing shortage in the United States is at crisis levels. And more and more nurses are burning hard and moving forward.
Solutions are needed to help hospitals and health systems continue to deliver quality health care. Many people in the health IT field believe that technology has a role to play.
Earlier this year, Gale Healthcare Solutions raised a $60 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital. The aim is to expand the capabilities and reach of the mobile app, designed to accommodate available shift nurses.
Gale allows nurses to search for open shifts and request the one they want in real time. This is a platform that pays nurses the same day, minutes after they complete the job. Tony Braswell, CEO of Gale, said: “Having this kind of flexibility and pay of the day is key to boosting morale and ending nursing shortages, which COVID has exacerbated. than.
Gale, named after Florence Nightingale, now has 55,000 clinicians using its app in 40 states and made the list of Inc.’s 5,000 fastest-growing companies.
IT news about healthcare sat down with Braswell to discuss the nurse shortage, his mobile app, and the role technology plays in helping alleviate the pain nurses are feeling today.
Q. Please describe the situation to the nurse today.
ONE. The nursing industry is in crisis. Several elements are appearing at once. The US population is aging and needs more care. At the same time, many nurses are retiring and leaving their jobs after nearly three years of stress because of COVID. In Nurse.org’s 2021 State of Nursing Survey, 80% of nurses said their unit was understaffed and 87% of nurses said they felt exhausted in the past year.
Nursing shortages are driving everyone in healthcare management – from C-suite executives to onsite shift supervisors – to find innovative solutions to meet challenges. increasingly difficult on their personnel. One of them are on-demand platforms that allow healthcare facility managers to post jobs and find nurses in real time.
On-demand workers in healthcare are a game changer, much like what we’ve seen in other parts of life with Uber and AirBnB. Today’s job market is transitioning to a “gig economy,” with people wanting to work when and where they want – and that includes nurses. Through Gale’s app, nurses can control their own schedule and their pay. This gives strength and can help relieve some of the stress they go through.
Here’s the reality: More than a million nurses will be needed by 2030 to meet the growing need for care. Changing the nursing industry to be more flexible, with on-demand staffing is one way we will retain and attract more nurses into the profession.
Q. Where did the inspiration for Gale come from?
ONE. It’s funny how forces converge in life. After college, I majored in computer science, and my first job was coding for a company that managed Medicare claims for the state. Besides, I had this idea – to start a newspaper that lists open jobs – to basically connect workers and companies. I published it for a few months, but quickly ran out of money.
Soon after, I got a call from a recruiting company asking me what happened to it while they were using it. I told them and they invited me as an IT recruiter. Money was better, and I needed it, so I took it.
After researching recruitment businesses, a few years later, I founded my own healthcare provider company. I spent 25 years as a healthcare worker, where I relied on old-school techniques: constant calling, texting, and nagging to fill open nursing shifts. It’s like a guinea pig on wheels, working hard to finish the day’s shift and leaving no time to grow the business.
In 2016, I was at work one day when my son ordered a bottle of ketchup online. I think it’s ridiculous, but this was before daily orders from Amazon became all too common.
When I realized that he could pick up such a small item quickly, on demand, I knew that the same approach could and should be used for a much larger need: helping customers. health care facility finds a nurse. The very next day, with the help of a friend, we started exploring the concept of an app.
Less than six months after that bottle of ketchup arrived at my son’s door, our app was up and running. We named it Gale after Florence Nightingale, because in her day she revolutionized nursing. Our vision is that we will do the same for today’s nursing staffing.
Q. How does Gale work and who is using it today?
ONE. Gale serves healthcare providers and healthcare clinicians – primarily nurses and nursing assistants. Clinicians open the app and set their availability to work. The facility is responsive to shift change needs, and any clinician claiming to be present will receive immediate notification.
They accept the shift they want, go to work and get paid the same day. We currently pay most clinicians within minutes of their job completion, before they reach their vehicle. For clinicians, the process is simple and seamless.
The same goes for facilities. Managers enter the shifts they need into the Gale app and track as they work in real time. But it’s not just a scheduling device. They can also use the app to provide clinician feedback and as a compliance tool because they have access to physician credentials via the app.
Nurses love flexibility and quick pay. Facilities appreciate a tool that can help them solve one of their biggest problems: staff shortages. As a result, Gale is growing exponentially, with more than 55,000 clinicians and thousands of healthcare providers in 40 states.
This year, we made the list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies by Inc.
Our primary focus is on providing care in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other aged care communities. However, over the past year, after doubling the size of our national healthcare workforce, we have expanded our services to include traveling nurses and permanent staff placements to facilities. healthcare has many options to meet their staffing needs.
We’ve also started licensing our software to help other HR companies expand their offerings. We know that the more our proven technology is used, the more people are interested.
Q. How do you believe Gale helps combat nursing shortages?
ONE. Through technology, Gale is working to end the shortage of nurses to ensure no one goes without care. We cannot magically create new nurses. I wish we could – I spend a lot of time thinking about nurse education. We have established a foundation to support nursing education, we are investing in nursing programs, but the results here will take a long time.
Right now, what we can do is use technology to connect clinicians with facilities that have staffing needs. That way, any licensed nursing professional who wants to work can work. They may want to work a lot or only occasionally – we can somehow ensure they have the opportunity to get the shifts that are right for them. This freedom and flexibility can help prevent burnout and keep more nurses on the job.
Same-day pay for nurses also helps. As a teenager, I worked on a tobacco farm in eastern North Carolina. It’s hard work, but the best part is that we get paid every day when we get the job done.
After more than 40 years, I can now make it available to thousands of nurses through technology. Many nurses are living on paycheck to paycheck. The ability to work shifts when you need the money and get paid quickly afterward is empowering.
As the gig economy grows, companies that can offer their workers this benefit will have a big advantage. Think about it. Technology allows us to pay bills online or send money to friends after sharing dinner. We should also use it to get people paid quickly. You don’t have to wait a week or even longer.
At Gale, we are leading a revolution to make nursing a less stressful and more rewarding profession, with flexibility and fast pay. To achieve this, we continuously improve our technology. We’re excited to have a new chief technology officer who has joined us from Google.
He joined because he was intrigued by Gale’s mission to make sure no one went carefree. Helping people, through technology, is at the core of what we do.
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
