South Shore Health + HWL
Mastering Workforce Management
About The South Shore Hospital
South Shore Health (SSH) is a leading regional healthcare facility with Massachusetts’ only community-based Level III NICU and one of three Level II Trauma Centers in the state. Notable for cardiac care with 3,500+ annual procedures, it ranks among the state’s top 10 hospitals and has achieved four consecutive Magnet nursing designations.
The Situation
South Shore Health realized that managing agency contracts directly was costly, time consuming, and hindered strategic cost-saving efforts. The strain on hiring managers, HR, and finance prompted the search for a better solution and partner.
The hospital aimed to streamline communication between HR and clinical teams: optimizing its contingent labor program to ensure sustainable operations while reducing costs and improving the reliability and quality of staff from agencies.
South Shore’s leadership proposed an internal comprehensive FTE budget transformation anchored in census-based staffing reviews and real-time monitoring.
Key Challenges
Hospital identified need to modernize workforce management systems
to better track and optimize contingent labor costs.
Opportunity to strengthen interdepartmental communication while enhancing oversight of growing contingent workforce.
"From the beginning, our focus was to gain greater control and visibility into our contingent labor utilization and costs so we could implement strategies to reduce the overall utilization of agencies. HWL was able to standardize contracts and processes with agencies and deliver a highly efficient process; but more importantly, they provided me the data and analytics I needed to implement our budget-based staffing model. Not only did they help us execute our strategy, but they were also a true partner every step of the way."
Darleen Souza
Senior Vice President and CHRO, South Shore Health
The Goal
South Shore Health aimed to optimize its
contingent workforce program through
centralized MSP management, streamlined
operations, and strategic rate optimization
while maintaining highest quality patient care
through credentialed staffing. This approach
focused on developing transparent
partnerships and implementing efficient
processes to reduce costs while ensuring
organizational alignment.
The Solution
Partnering with HWL, South Shore Health executed an internal, comprehensive FTE budgettransformation anchored in census-based staffing reviews and real-time monitoring.
Driven by HR leadership, the new system featured a 90-day RN tracking tool with dynamic goal adjustment while addressing communication gaps between HR and clinical teams.
This integrated approach eliminated delays, established timely staffing fulfillment, and created transparent cross-departmental processes that strengthened the entire workforce management system.
From a nursing leadership perspective, this
program has vastly improved how we manage
our contingent workforce. The improved
communication and staffing coordination have
directly enhanced our ability to deliver
exceptional patient care. The reduction in
administrative burden allows our team to focus
on what matters most - our patients.
Andrew D. Harding, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CENP, FACHE, FAHA, FAEN
Chief Nursing Officer, South Shore Health