For years, being fully staffed has been considered the gold standard in healthcare operations. On paper, it signals stability, continuity, and preparedness. But in practice? It often locks facilities into rigid, expensive labor models that don’t adapt to demand, and this can quietly drain your budget.
Today’s healthcare landscape is too dynamic for static staffing models. Patient volumes fluctuate. Reimbursement pressures continue. And burnout among full-time staff is at an all-time high. Yet many facilities still cling to the idea that permanent staff coverage is the only way to ensure quality care. That mindset is costing more than it’s saving.
The hidden cost of rigidity
Traditional staffing models often prioritize predictability over adaptability. But when you’re staffed for your peak, even during slower periods, you’re paying for capacity you don’t need. Add in overtime, travel contracts, benefits, and the rising cost of recruitment and retention, and the math starts to work against you.
The 2025 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report found the RN vacancy rate hit 9.6%, with each departure costing an average of $61,110. With an average 83-day time-to-fill, every gap strains your team and your budget.
Facilities can’t afford to think of staffing as a fixed line item. It needs to be dynamic. Flexible. Responsive to both patient acuity and financial performance. That’s where most systems are falling short.
Flexibility as a financial strategy
Facilities that adopt flexible staffing models are experiencing measurable improvements in both operational efficiency and labor costs. At Medely, we help healthcare organizations tap into local per diem talent for on-demand shifts and long-term assignments, saving nearly 20% (based on 2024 data across all facility types) compared to traditional agencies.
What makes this possible isn’t just access to credentialed healthcare professionals, but the technology that prioritizes the least costly talent first.
Medely combines vendor management and an internal resource management system in one solution. Facilities can post open shifts, prioritize their internal team, and automatically cascade unfilled shifts to Medely’s marketplace of credentialed pros, before lastly tapping into external agencies. This waterfall approach ensures that you staff the most cost-effective layer of your workforce first.
Instead of paying agency rates or rushing to fill shifts with overtime, leaders can use Medely’s waterfall to exhaust internal options before engaging external talent, without adding manual steps or delays. That saves time, money, and administrative lift.
You also gain full visibility into shift costs before booking, allowing you to make smarter staffing decisions in real time. That’s a level of pricing transparency and control most traditional VMS platforms simply can’t offer.
This approach gives leaders more control over labor costs without compromising care. You can scale your team based on actual need, reduce reliance on overtime and full-time backfilling, and avoid the sunk costs of recruiting, onboarding, and retaining staff you may not need long-term. And when you work with professionals who already know your facility, you don’t sacrifice continuity or quality.
A better way to staff
It’s time to rethink what it means to be “fully staffed.” The goal isn’t to fill every line on the schedule months in advance. It’s to ensure the right level of coverage, with the right skills, at the right time, without breaking your budget or burning out your team.
Flexible staffing isn’t just a tactical solution. It’s a strategic one. For COOs and operational leaders seeking to drive better outcomes, it’s quickly becoming a competitive advantage.
Want to see how flexible staffing could impact your bottom line? Learn how Medely helps operational leaders optimize labor costs.
