Speaker 1: These is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: So you know, everybody, Various parts of the US labor
Speaker 2: force continue to flex their mess muscles over pay, benefits
Speaker 2: and working conditions. Hollywood writers, they came to an agreement
Speaker 2: this week. You got the UAW workers we talked about
Speaker 2: this earlier still on strike, and then also this week's
Speaker 2: CBS Health facing resumption of walkouts this week by pharmacists
Speaker 2: in Kansas City, Missouri, which they are specifically protesting working
Speaker 2: conditions in their drug stores and also some other locations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, healthcare workers in general continue to feel stresses coming
Speaker 3: out of the pandemic. It's something Our next guest has
Speaker 3: talked with us quite a bit about her firm too,
Speaker 3: helping to connect those in the healthcare space with facilities,
Speaker 3: including in underserved areas. With what she's doing, we welcome
Speaker 3: back doctor Ymana Buzaid co founder and CEO at Incredible Health.
Speaker 3: It's a career marketplace for connecting hospitals to nursing talent.
Speaker 3: She joins us once again on Zoom from Austin, Texas.
Speaker 3: Doctor Abuzie, good to have you back with us. How
Speaker 3: are you good.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: It's been quite a while since we've spoken with you.
Speaker 3: Just give us an update on, you know, before we
Speaker 3: get to what you're doing when it comes to safety
Speaker 3: net hospitals in load of moderate income areas, talk to
Speaker 3: us just about what you're seeing across the landscape right
Speaker 3: now when it comes to medical professionals and you know
Speaker 3: the numbers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I mean what we're seeing is hospital financials
Speaker 1: are starting to improve. Their margins are starting to improve
Speaker 1: because you know, reimbursement rates are increasing as well as
Speaker 1: you know, hospitals are getting a better handle on their
Speaker 1: labor expenses. However, we continue to see an ongoing labor
Speaker 1: shortage for nurses and other clinical workers. Our demands as
Speaker 1: a country and our population is aging, so our demand
Speaker 1: on the healthcare system continues to increase, and the supply
Speaker 1: of workers is not kept up with that demand.
Speaker 2: All right, So I always think about, like how do
Speaker 2: we get to a better place, And especially I think about,
Speaker 2: you know, there might be enough workers in some of
Speaker 2: the big cities or even that may be stressed, but
Speaker 2: I do wonder about the underserved communities or the load
Speaker 2: to moderate income communities. And I know you guys have
Speaker 2: done some work on it. What are you finding?
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so. About twenty five percent of the hospital
Speaker 1: partners that we work with have facilities that are located
Speaker 1: in low to moderate income communities. Some of these hospitals
Speaker 1: are safety net hospitals, so they're caring for a disproportionate
Speaker 1: number of uninsured or Medicaid patients. And so what we're
Speaker 1: seeing there is that there's actually quite a lot of
Speaker 1: interest from the nursing community to move and relocate to
Speaker 1: permanent jobs in these communities. You know, nursing is a
Speaker 1: profession that's a bit of a calling as well, where
Speaker 1: they really want to help help a community and deliver care.
Speaker 1: And so twenty seven percent of the hires that we've
Speaker 1: seen on our platform over the last twelve months have
Speaker 1: taken a job, a permanent job at a facility in
Speaker 1: a low and moderate income community. Wow.
Speaker 3: So talk to us a little bit about you know,
Speaker 3: why these areas have such a hard time attracting and
Speaker 3: retaining talent. I mean, is it because you know I
Speaker 3: talked to doctors. Actually, you know my friends who are doctors,
Speaker 3: and they tell me they could make more money if
Speaker 3: they went to one of these underserved areas, that's right.
Speaker 1: So the challenge with load and moderate income with facilities
Speaker 1: and load and moderate income communities is that they have
Speaker 1: even more of a challenge or attracting talent compared to
Speaker 1: you know, hospitals in more affluent areas. Part of that
Speaker 1: is just like, you know, there's fewer healthcare workers who
Speaker 1: want to work in those communities, and then also oftentimes
Speaker 1: they are more financially constrained, right, so what you can
Speaker 1: do as a clinician in these communities can be limited,
Speaker 1: but regardless, they're supporting you know, millions of Americans. And
Speaker 1: so the message here is that it's just important to
Speaker 1: understand that there are healthcare workers out there, There are
Speaker 1: nurses out there that are more than willing to relocate
Speaker 1: to facilities and load and moderate income communities. The challenge
Speaker 1: has been is that they're not aware of these opportunities,
Speaker 1: and so we need to just continue increasing the awareness
Speaker 1: of some of these roles and some of the benefits
Speaker 1: of working in these communities too.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: That's really interesting and it's fascinating to see kind of
Speaker 2: the movement or the willingness to move, if you will,
Speaker 2: and I'm assuming on your platform, that's one way of
Speaker 2: kind of raising the awareness right and letting nurses know
Speaker 2: that there are other places where they can go to
Speaker 2: help out, or other healthcare professionals to help out.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. When a nurse rates his or her
Speaker 1: profile on incredible Health, they're entering their preferences and their experiences,
Speaker 1: including their location preferences, and so we're able to present,
Speaker 1: you know, opportunities that match what it is that they're
Speaker 1: looking for. And so for the twenty seven percent of
Speaker 1: nurses that have relocated for their permanent role in a
Speaker 1: low moderate income community, they just they didn't know, they
Speaker 1: were not aware before that these opportunities were there.
Speaker 2: You know, often when you've come on, we've talked about,
Speaker 2: you know, the stresses in terms of healthcare workers, certainly
Speaker 2: what they felt during the pandemic coming out of the pandemic,
Speaker 2: but we've also talked about these shortages of health care professionals.
Speaker 2: Is it getting better? Are we seeing more people come
Speaker 2: in to this space or do you continue to see
Speaker 2: pretty significant shortages generally speaking.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, Look, the good news is, look, over the
Speaker 1: last five to ten years, we have certainly increased the
Speaker 1: number of healthcare workers in the US. The challenges that
Speaker 1: increase is not kept up with the demand from the patients,
Speaker 1: right because our population is aging, right, and so until
Speaker 1: we have that, disparity is still quite huge, and until
Speaker 1: that gets closed, we're going to continue to have labor
Speaker 1: shortages across the country.
Speaker 3: What needs to happen earlier sort of in the life
Speaker 3: cycle of somebody who becomes a healthcare professional, for people
Speaker 3: to be encouraged to do it for the pipeline to
Speaker 3: get bigger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the great thing is there is a lot
Speaker 1: of interest from Americans to join nursing and other clinical professions. However,
Speaker 1: we have some important ballnecks that we need to solve. So,
Speaker 1: for example, our nursing schools can handle any more capacity
Speaker 1: and aren't able to train more Americans to be nurses
Speaker 1: because they're limited on factory for example. Another ball on
Speaker 1: neck is the training of nurses. So increasingly now we're
Speaker 1: seeing more and more health systems offer training programs for nurses.
Speaker 1: And then the third issues that we have retirement happening.
Speaker 1: So this is an aging workforce and increasingly we are
Speaker 1: health systems are switching are shifting to hiring nurses that
Speaker 1: are earlier and earlier in their careers because they know
Speaker 1: they have twenty five percent of nurses that are expected
Speaker 1: to retire in the next four to five years.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm always surprised too when you talk to
Speaker 2: me about kind of what's the average salary for a nurse.
Speaker 2: I always think it's kind of informative, and I do
Speaker 2: wonder if there's still if that is on the rise
Speaker 2: to the upside, because are continuing to rise to the
Speaker 2: upside because of the shortages that are out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the national average is that ninety thousand dollars a year,
Speaker 1: and in many states like California, for example, it's well
Speaker 1: over one hundred. It's over one hundred and ten thousand
Speaker 1: as the average salary.
Speaker 3: Is that fair? Is that enough? If it were enough,
Speaker 3: then there would be more more nurses out there, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean so essentially this is classic supply and demand.
Speaker 1: Because there's been a shortage, we've seen the wage inflation
Speaker 1: continue to increase for this profession.
Speaker 2: So does that mean tim? Tim makes up a good point, like,
Speaker 2: so does that mean it is bringing more people into
Speaker 2: the system who want to be nurses? And I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously you have to go through the training and the education,
Speaker 2: but it is it bringing more people in terms of
Speaker 2: the applicant pool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the interest in the interest in nursing from Americans
Speaker 1: is very high. You know, when nursing schools have each
Speaker 1: nursing school has weightless of ten, you know, tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of applicants that can't get in because of the
Speaker 1: nursing school.
Speaker 3: Why don't we build another nursing school.
Speaker 2: We've talked about this, the lack of it's nuts.
Speaker 1: It is and it's going to take you know, we
Speaker 1: have some hew systems that are acquiring nursing schools and
Speaker 1: expanding them. We have increasingly more and more funding new
Speaker 1: caulngars to expand number of nursing schools. So the solutions
Speaker 1: are coming, but they're just not fast enough.
Speaker 2: But it's interesting, right tim when you think about like
Speaker 2: inflationary pressures and wage pressures, like this is a dynamic
Speaker 2: beyond that. We need it because there are people who
Speaker 2: need healthcare professionals and nursing professionals, but it is a
Speaker 2: dynamic and economic dynamic that maybe is one of those
Speaker 2: reasons why we talk about persistent inflation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a really good point. And you know, doctor
Speaker 3: abuset I want to just end with you know what
Speaker 3: it all means for you and for the company at
Speaker 3: Incredible Health, Like, what does it mean for your company?
Speaker 1: I mean for us at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: our vision is just is to health healthcare professionals live
Speaker 1: better lives and help them find and do their best work.
Speaker 1: And so by expanding awareness of the opportunities in nursing. Uh,
Speaker 1: That's that's the key role that we want to play.
Speaker 1: And we want to make sure that even low to
Speaker 1: moderate income communities get access to top healthcare talent as.
Speaker 2: Well, right equal access, Doctor emon Abuse, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Good to hear your voice again and check in with
Speaker 2: your co founder and cee you at Incredible Health. As
Speaker 2: we've reminded you in the past our views and our listeners,
Speaker 2: it's a career marketplace for connecting hospitals to nursing talent,
Speaker 2: so really putting them all together. She of course joining
Speaker 2: us on Zoom.
Speaker 3: It's not funny we thought like that, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's not funny. It's interesting that we thought that the
Speaker 3: pandemic was sort of this one time event that would
Speaker 3: create a shortage when it came to healthcare workers, and
Speaker 3: we're still seeing that persist.
Speaker 2: No, and the thing about nursing schools. I mean, my
Speaker 2: sister's a nurse, and the nursing school she went to
Speaker 2: that was torn down a few years ago. It's kind
Speaker 2: of interesting that, you know, done that. Yeah, well, no,
Speaker 2: exactly