Gratia Health – a 25m Health portfolio company – recently emerged from stealth with seed funding led by JumpStart Capital and a major contract with strategic partner ScionHealth to implement its incentive compensation platform across ScionHealth’s 70+ specialty hospitals.
To address the challenge of costly contract labor for front-line caregivers and to retain and reward outstanding full-time employees, ScionHealth – a national health system with approximately 25,000 team members – announced a strategic partnership with health technology startup Gratia Health to implement a tech-enabled employee incentive platform for caregivers who pick up work shifts at the company’s 76 specialty hospitals.
Following a successful pilot program in which ScionHealth saw a notable reduction in contract labor utilization, ScionHealth has extended the partnership with Gratia to all of its specialty hospitals in 21 states.
Gratia’s technology enables caregivers to participate in a uniquely designed shift pick-up incentive program. And eligible staff can easily find and secure extra shifts while tracking their progress toward pay incentives and status rewards that help caregivers reach personal earnings goals.
Employees could utilize Gratia’s two-way texting application to check their status in the incentive program, easily engage, and ask questions. Gratia delivers automated nudges and progress notifications to caregivers that optimize the program for engagement and reward attainment. In addition, And Gratia provides administrators with tools to gauge program performance and streamline back-office support functions.
Kelcie McCloskey – who serves as Chief Clinical Officer and Chief Operating Officer at ScionHealth’s Kindred Hospital Albuquerque (New Mexico) – said the Gratia-powered incentive program enables caregivers to earn meaningfully variable pay for their efforts while monitoring their progress toward their financial goals in real-time. They can also plan work schedules around those goals.
ScionHealth’s partnership with Gratia traces to early 2022, when ScionHealth formed a clinical labor taskforce to explore ways the organization could tackle workforce challenges facing the healthcare industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the rising cost of contract labor. And ScionHealth sought ways to make the employee experience for front-line healthcare workers more compelling and sustainable, focusing on incentivizing and rewarding team members, especially those who go above and beyond.
Newly formed Gratia (incubated by 25m Health) met ScionHealth’s needs by offering a comprehensive incentive compensation platform designed for the healthcare industry. Gratia automates incentives by offering customized programs deployed and managed through its proprietary software. So far, given the reduction in contract labor costs, ScionHealth has seen a significant return on its investment with Gratia, allowing the company to continue reinvesting in its workforce.
ScionHealth and Gratia are looking to build upon their initial success by piloting and rolling out additional incentive programs, including attendance and preceptorship, to address workforce health in 2024.
With a third of nurses saying they intend to leave their job next year and hospitals paying upwards of 2.5X for contract nurses compared to pre-pandemic, Gratia’s novel approach to maximizing healthcare workforce performance and wellness through incentivization will be a welcome tool for other healthcare employers confronting similar challenges.
KEY QUOTES:
“ScionHealth’s purpose is to empower the hands that heal to do what they do best. An essential part of that is providing caregivers with opportunities to help them reach their personal, professional, and financial goals – ultimately, creating careers that are satisfying and sustainable. ScionHealth prides itself on leaning into new ideas and seeking out partnerships that can move our team forward, and we’ve done that with Gratia Health.”
- Daniel Brywczynski, President of Specialty Hospitals for ScionHealth
“Being recognized and incentivized for one’s hard work and having the ability to gauge pay increase on-demand is huge for our employees.”
- Kelcie McCloskey – who serves as Chief Clinical Officer and Chief Operating Officer at ScionHealth’s Kindred Hospital Albuquerque
“Our partnership with Gratia has propelled innovation and technology to the forefront and has assisted with contract-labor reduction by promoting a shared responsibility model to care for our patient population. Rewarding employees versus paying contract labor is not only fiscally responsible, but it also helps maintain clinical quality and continuity of care – which is every healthcare organization’s goal.”
- Michelle Dennis, Senior Director of Workforce Development at ScionHealth
“The staffing shortage and general wellness of our front-line healthcare workers is perhaps the biggest challenge our industry faces today. Our approach from the beginning was to focus on long-term, sustainable solutions that create healthier work environments for staffed healthcare workers. In creating a truly innovative approach to how clinical staff are recognized and incentivized, we’ve tapped into a deep well of value that is creating a win-win environment for everyone.”
“None of this would have been possible without ScionHealth’s steadfast commitment to innovation and focus on empowering their clinical staff to do their best work. We are excited to continue expanding our offering and empower other healthcare employers that face similar workforce challenges.”
- Harrison Tyner, Co-Founder and President of Gratia Health
