title: Trends in hospitals' use of contract labor.
abstract: During the period of 1997-2005, total personnel expense for the nation's short-term hospitals averaged about 51.1 percent of total operating revenue. Contract labor expense as a percentage of total personnel expense increased from 1.3 percent to more than 3 percent during this period. By making more judicious use of contract labor, short-term acute care hospitals nationwide could reduce their staffing costs by as much as $3.5 billion.
authors.affiliation: Cost Report Data Resources, LLC, Louisville, KY, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shoemaker
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Schuhmann
mesh_terms: D032982:Contracts / Q000639:trends*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005377:Financial Management, Hospital; D006280:Health Workforce; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States