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Future-Proofing Healthcare Staffing

Future-Proofing Healthcare Staffing

Rewriting the DNA of workforce resilience

The headlines are impossible to overlook:

20 hospitals, health systems cutting jobs

20 top hospital systems have 12,000+ open jobs

These are real headlines published in a major healthcare news outlet on the same day in March 2025.

Hospitals are struggling to hire and yet many are closing. While the healthcare industry is no stranger to economic fluctuations, even the most experienced professionals are left questioning how much longer they can withstand a rapidly shifting landscape. What’s behind this crisis?

On the one hand, healthcare hiring is down due to spending cuts, private equity disruption, and AI automation, which are eliminating or modifying positions. On the other hand, hiring is robust at thriving healthcare organizations, driven by an aging population’s healthcare needs and the push for hospitals to return to pre-pandemic capacity.  

Whichever side of the equation you stand on, the evidence is clear: healthcare systems—like most businesses nationwide—struggle to manage their workforce. Delays in hiring and reducing capital expenditures are causing organizations to operate at suboptimal levels, slowing down production, delaying essential services, and reducing staff in non-essential areas. In healthcare, this often means relying on locum tenens or temporary staff to balance spending with patient care.  

The Private Equity Cautionary Tale: Too Much, Too Little and Too Fast

Rapid change – either expanding or contracting – always poses a risk to an organization’s structure. This is especially true in healthcare, where the delicate balance between patient care and proper staffing can easily be disrupted. Rapid expansion can overwhelm resources, cause provider burnout and compromise patient care. On the flip side, scaling down too fast can result in critical staff shortages, reduced access to care and service gaps, all of which harm patient outcomes.

Healthcare must grow sustainably, balancing financial stability with the core mission of providing quality care. This was evident in the downfall of Steward Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital system, backed by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. Steward filed for bankruptcy in 2024 after expanding rapidly, purchasing more hospitals and creating a real estate investment trust (REIT). While the REIT generated massive profits for shareholders by purchasing the land the hospitals stood on and then charging them hefty lease fees, this bankrupted the hospitals and left them with $9 billion in liabilities. It’s alleged vendors were not paid, staff salaries were cut, routine maintenance on equipment was neglected and staff and patients suffered. Steward’s fall is one of the largest hospital bankruptcies in decades.

While there are still active Senate Committee hearings on what happened with Steward Healthcare, it’s clear that driving healthcare systems for pure financial gains and eliminating vital staff has disastrous consequences. With approximately 20 percent of all for-profit hospitals nationwide owned or operated by private equity firms, only time will reveal the true impact of private equity in the healthcare model.

Is doing more with fewer resources a bad thing? Not necessarily – but it depends on the approach. Implementing efficiency, scaling back on non-critical projects, hiring smarter via technology solutions and digital innovation can work in the short term. However, in the long term, the pursuit of efficiency must be balanced with a commitment to well-being, both for patients and the providers that serve them.

AI Everywhere All At Once

As the healthcare industry grapples with these challenges, many organizations are turning to AI as a potential solution. AI seems like the ideal tool to accomplish more with less. And doing more with less is a panacea during economic uncertainty. At the recent Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) Executive Forum, the annual conference for the staffing industry hosted by the global research and advisory firm, executives were focused on how AI could save money. AI seemed to be on the agenda for every session and discussion: How will AI help with hiring efficiency? When and how should it be implemented? How will AI impact our workforce and are we ready for this change?

As much as AI is being touted as a quick fix, reaping its benefits isn’t instantaneous. AI frees employees from repetitive tasks, which helps streamline the redundant office systems in many hospitals. But the real value of AI lies in how it assists with higher-level problem-solving with real-time, insightful data. For example, AI’s ability to track and manage hospital staffing can allow administrators to make swift staffing adjustments, ensuring care is delivered efficiently and on time.

The transition to AI isn’t simply about replacing human labor but empowering professionals with data-driven insights that enhance actionable planning. Healthcare organizations must remain competitive and engaging in strategic, high-value work will improve decision-making. It’s no longer feasible to wait weeks or months to make operational changes. By leveraging AI to optimize staffing, healthcare systems can ensure the care they’re committed to delivering comes to fruition.

Protecting Yourself With Data and Charting Your Own Path

Economists are admittedly scouring forecasting reports for insights about how the economy will land. Finance experts no longer seem to be ruminating over whether it will be a hard or soft landing – it’s simply any kind of landing- due to the country’s wildly uncertain economic future.

How can professionals seeking jobs and healthcare organizations navigate this uncertainty? It depends on where you sit in the healthcare hiring ecosystem:

  1. If you’re a healthcare professional, stay flexible and resilient in your job search. Being adaptable and strategic in a competitive job market is more important than ever. Ensure you have all the latest technology tools and access to the best jobs on the market. Gather a strong resume, current certifications and licenses and have them easily accessible. Be ready to apply when a job becomes available. Hiring facilities will be looking to fill roles quickly, so stay organized and ready to apply instantly.
  2. If you’re a healthcare facility, staff appropriately by micro-planning and leveraging data. Resources must be considered on a case-by-case, project-by-project and even day-by-day basis. If you used to plan out staffing monthly or quarterly, switch to a weekly or even daily model. Balancing staffing levels with the right mix of permanent staff and locum tenens professionals can be the difference between canceling surgeries and providing high-quality, timely care. Implement an AI-augmented hiring system with quick compliance turnaround.

The Future: How Close Is “Now”?

The future of healthcare staffing requires adaptability, which can be said for nearly every business in every industry. Economic uncertainty, hiring surges and layoffs will continue to be part of the future. For healthcare professionals and the organizations that hire them, staying flexible and prepared will be key to overcoming the challenges ahead. What’s the best strategy? Turn to low-cost, easy implementation technology solutions, particularly in staffing. With smart staffing solutions, continuous adaptation, and leveraging the power of data, healthcare staffing and operations can be tamed. The headlines may remain disconcerting, but the right strategy and preparation will make them seem less scary.  

Headshot of Sheldon Arora

Sheldon Arora

CEO of StaffDNA

Check out these other great StaffDNA articles

Healthcare organizations face some of the toughest workforce challenges: tight budgets, lean IT teams and limited tools for sourcing, hiring and onboarding staff. Add in manual scheduling, rising labor costs and high burnout, and the pressure grows. Rolling out complex systems can feel out of reach without dedicated tech support. Even simply evaluating new technology can overwhelm already stretched-thin teams.

These challenges make it clear that technology isn’t just helpful; it’s essential for healthcare organizations. Especially when they’re striving to do more with less. Not only are healthcare organizations falling short on implementing new technology, but they’re struggling to update outdated systems. A 2023 CHIME survey found that nearly 60% of hospitals use core IT systems, such as EHRs and workforce platforms, that are over a decade old. Outdated tools can’t integrate or scale, creating barriers to smarter staffing strategies. But the opportunity to modernize is real and urgent.

Tech in Patient Care Falls Short

In healthcare, technology has historically focused on clinical and patient care. Workforce management tools have taken a back seat to updating patient care systems. Yet many big tech companies have failed when it comes to customizing healthcare infrastructure and connecting patients with providers. Google Health shuttered after only three years, and Amazon’s Haven Health was intended to disrupt healthcare and health insurance but disbanded three years later.

Why the failures? It’s estimated that nearly 80% of patient data technology systems must use to create alignment is unstructured and trapped in data silos. Integration issues naturally form when there’s a lack of cohesive data that systems can share and use. Privacy considerations surrounding patient data are a challenge, as well. Across the healthcare continuum, federal and state healthcare data laws hinder how seamlessly technology can integrate with existing systems.

Why Smarter Staffing Is Now Essential

These data and integration challenges also hinder a healthcare organization’s ability to hire and deploy staff, an urgent healthcare priority. The U.S. will face a shortfall of over 3.2 million healthcare workers by 2026. At the same time, aging populations and rising chronic conditions are straining teams already stretched thin.

Smart workforce technology is becoming not just helpful, but essential. It allows organizations to move from reactive staffing to proactive workforce planning that can adapt to real-world care demands.

Global Inspiration: Japan’s AI-Driven Workforce Model

Healthcare staffing shortages aren’t just a U.S. problem. So, how are other countries addressing this issue? Countries like Japan are demonstrating what’s possible when technology is utilized not just to supplement staff, but to transform the entire workforce model. With one of the world’s oldest populations and a significant clinician shortage, Japan has adopted a proactive approach through its Healthcare AI and Robotics Center, where several institutions like Waseda University and Tokyo’s Cancer Institute Hospital are focusing on developing AI-powered hospitals.

Japan’s focus on integrating predictive analytics, robotics and data-driven scheduling across elder care and hospital systems is a response to its aging population and workforce shortages. From robotic assistants to AI-supported shift planning, Japan’s futuristic model proves that holistic tech integration, not piecemeal upgrades, creates sustainable staffing frameworks.

Rather than treating workforce tech as an IT patch for broken systems, Japan’s approach embeds these tools throughout care operations, supporting scheduling, monitoring, compliance and even direct caregiving tasks. U.S. health systems can draw critical lessons here: strategic investment in integrated platforms builds resilience, especially in a labor-constrained future.

The Power of Smart Workforce Technology

In the U.S., workforce management is becoming increasingly seen as more than a back-office function; it’s a strategic business operation directly impacting clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. Smart technology tools are designed to improve care quality, staff satisfaction, scheduling, pay rates, compliance and much more.

For example, by using historical data, patient acuity, seasonal trends and other data points, organizations can predict their staff needs more accurately. The result is fewer gaps in scheduling, fewer overtime payouts and a flexible schedule for staff. AI-powered analytics can help healthcare leadership teams spot patterns in absenteeism, see productivity and forecast needs in multiple clinical areas in real-time. Workforce management tools can help plan scheduling proactively, rather than reactively. It’s a proven technology tool that can help drive efficiency and reduce costs.

Why So Many Are Still Behind

Despite the clear benefits, many healthcare organizations are slow to adopt smart tools that empower their workforce. Several things are holding them back from going all-in on technology:

Financial Pressures

Over half of U.S. hospitals are operating at or below break-even margins. For them, investing in new technology solutions is financially unfeasible. Scalable, subscription-based and even free workforce management tools are available, but most organizations are unaware of or lack the resources to source these products. Workforce management tools can deliver long-term return on investment for most organizations. Taking the time to understand where the value lies and which tools to invest in needs to happen.

Outdated Core Systems

Many facilities still depend on legacy technology infrastructure that lacks real-time capabilities. Many large players in the healthcare workforce management industry dominate hospital systems. Other smaller, real-time tools that offer innovative solutions to scheduling, workforce hiring, rate calculators and more are available at a fraction of the cost.

Competing Priorities and Strategic Blind Spots

Healthcare organizations and hospitals have many high-priority business objectives and regulatory demands. Digital transformation naturally falls down on the priority list, which causes them to miss improvements that can lead to long-term stability. With patient care and provider satisfaction at the top of the priority mountain, technology changes can be easily missed or shoved to the side when other business objectives are perceived to “move the needle” more.

Poor Change Management

Even the best technology efforts can fail without the right strategy for adoption and support from senior leadership. Resistance from staff, lack of training, or poor rollout communication can undermine success. Effective change management—clear leadership, role-based training and feedback loops—is essential.

Faster than the speed of technology

Change needs to come quickly to healthcare organizations in terms of managing their workforce efficiently. Smart technologies like predictive analytics, AI-assisted scheduling and mobile platforms will define this next era. These tools don’t just optimize operations but empower workers and elevate care quality.

Slow technology adoption continues to hold back the full potential of the healthcare ecosystem. Japan again offers a clear example: they had one of the slowest adoption rates of remote workers (19% of companies offered remote work) in 2019. Within just three weeks of the crisis, their remote work population doubled (49%), proving that technological transformation can happen fast when urgency strikes. The lesson is clear: healthcare organizations need to modernize faster for the sake of their workforce and the patients who rely on providers to deliver care.

 

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