PITTSBURGH (TNS) — UPMC officials said Friday they are losing staff to traveling nurse agencies which pay triple what nurses previously earned.

They have responded by creating an in-house traveling nurse agency which will pay nurses $85 an hour to travel among UPMC hospitals in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland.

They said the move is critical to offsetting the nursing shortage which threatens hospitals’ ability to handle surging cases of COVID-19 and other illnesses.

“It’s a win-win for UPMC and for nurses who like to travel. It’s a way for us to keep our own nurses, to recruit new nurses to UPMC and to bring back nurses who have left the system,” said Holly Lorenz, UPMC’s chief nursing executive.

UPMC, as have many hospitals, said the biggest present obstacle to caring for patients isn’t shortages of beds or equipment like breathing ventilators, but of having enough people to staff the beds.

Their traveling agency will also include surgical technicians, who will earn $63 an hour.

UPMC plans to begin deploying the traveling staff on Jan. 2 and has a goal of recruiting 800 traveling nurses.

Officials acknowledged the UPMC agency will likely lure nurses from competing hospitals. However, John Galley, UPMC’s chief human resources officer, said he believes those nurses would leave to become traveling nurses regardless.

He said there are no immediate plans to hire out UPMC traveling nurses and technicians to non-UPMC hospitals, but UPMC “would be open to that” if it would meet another hospital’s need.

There’s a national shortage of nurses resulting from factors including burnout from the nearly two-year COVID-19 pandemic and factors that are causing worker shortages in many industries.

In the midst of that, traveling nurse agencies have targeted hospital nurses, offering them big pay raises and leasing them back to hospitals at exorbitant rates.

Galley characterized it as an opportunistic practice, comparing it to price increases in lumber following a hurricane.

A year ago, he said, traveling agencies typically charged hospitals about $85 an hour for nurses, with the nurses earning about $50 an hour.

Now, traveling agencies are charging $200-$280 per hour, with their nurses earning $85-$90.

Lorenz said she believes $85 an hour, combined with UPMC’s medical and retirement benefits, will be enough to overcome the high wages offered by the agencies. She further believes traveling nurses will prefer the opportunity to work in a relatively small region rather than having to travel throughout the country.

UPMC officials said they believe they are the first hospital system in the United States to launch an in-house traveling nurse agency.

“I think it’s one of the biggest game-changers in response to what’s happening nationally,” Lorenz said, referring to the national staffing shortage.

{p class=”krtText”}UPMC traveling nurses will typically do six-week cycles at hospitals within UPMC’s footprint. UPMC has 40 hospitals, with more than 30 in Pennsylvania, and others in New York and Maryland.

{p class=”krtText”}Every six weeks they will receive $2,880 toward travel-related expenses.

{p class=”krtText”}UPMC officials said they posted the traveling nurse openings internally this week and UPMC nurses have begun applying. They also stressed they have already boosted pay for their nurses and others to prevent them from leaving for non- UPMC positions.

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