St. Joseph’s Health to Stop Hiring Travel Nurses Within 50 Mile Radius

SYRACUSE, N.Y.— St. Joseph’s Health will no longer hire travel nurses who live within 50 miles of Syracuse, NY. Its regional partner under Trinity Health, St. Peter’s Health Partners, will institute the same policy in the Capital Region.

“We truly appreciate the sacrifices that travel staff made to help us during the pandemic. They filled many gaps in our workforce, allowing us to continue to provide safe, exceptional care to our patients,” said Dr. Steven Hanks, President & CEO, St. Joseph’s Health and St. Peter’s Health Partners. “It’s now time to move away from external contract labor so we can re-invest in our core staff.”

Travel rates were designed to accommodate for the fact that people were leaving their homes and families, living in hotels, and traveling to hospitals far away.

“What we’re experiencing in the post-pandemic period is that our travel staff are more likely to not be actually travelling, and instead are moving over from neighboring facilities in order to take advantage of the enhanced rates,” said Hanks. “That’s not what the rates were designed for. They were meant to be paid during the exceptional circumstances where you have no other choice but to hire labor from outside the market. Having travel staff who aren’t actually travelling work alongside our colleagues at a higher rate of pay causes resentment among co-workers and is not financially sustainable for our health system.”

Out of fairness and respect for staff at St. Joseph’s Health and St. Peter’s Health Partners, a policy has been created that restricts anyone who resides within 50 miles of the hospital where they’d be working from being hired as travel staff.

Nationally, contract labor expenses have risen more than 250% over the past three years. The U.S. average pay for travel nurses was $150 an hour in early 2022, which experts say tempted more nurses to leave staff jobs, increasing turnover and exacerbating shortages.

With more than 9,000 job openings for nurses in New York State, St. Joseph’s Health and St. Peter’s Health Partners are finding new ways to recruit and retain nurses including referral bonuses, sign-on bonuses, and multifaceted outreach efforts. At both health systems, nurses have an autonomous voice, respect, and influence to drive decision making. They are empowered to take an active role to directly impact the care of our patients and their families through Unit Practice Councils, cross-training initiatives, and shared governance.

“Our nurses are the heart of our health systems; they are compassionate healers,” said Hanks. “We are deeply appreciative of their commitment and resilience, especially over the past few years.”

Anyone interested in joining St. Joseph’s Health or St Peter’s Health Partners can visit https://jobs.sjhsyr.org/ or https://www.sphp.com/careers/.

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About St. Joseph’s Health

“St. Joseph’s Health is non-profit health care system based in Syracuse, NY. St. Joseph’s has been an innovative leader in health care since our founding in 1869 as the first hospital open to the public in the city of Syracuse. Offering primary, specialty and home care, a Magnet-recognized hospital, and collaboration with community partners, St. Joseph's Health advances the well-being of the communities we serve through an expanding range of services to ensure our patients achieve optimum long-term health. St. Joseph’s is one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery and one of America’s 100 Best for Spine Surgery and Coronary Intervention according to Healthgrades. It is ranked by Consumer Reports among the top 15 heart surgery centers in the country, a designated Stroke Center and a U.S. News “Best Regional Hospital.” St. Joseph’s Health is affiliated with St. Joseph’s Physicians, and is a member of Trinity Health.For more information, visit www.sjhsyr.org/legacy.”

About Trinity Health

Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit, Catholic health care systems in the nation. It is a family of 115,000 colleagues and nearly 26,000 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 25 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 88 hospitals, 131 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 125 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services. Based in Livonia, Michigan, its annual operating revenue is $20.2 billion with $1.2 billion returned to its communities in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs.