Top 20 hospitals by highest contract labor expenses

U.S. hospitals are increasingly working with contracted labor to keep their facilities staffed and running to provide quality patient care. With provider burnout rising, the healthcare staffing market is also projected to grow over 7% into 2022.

How much do hospitals spend on contract labor each year?

Analyzing financial data from HospitalView reveals average hospital contract labor spend more than doubled between 2011 and 2020, from $2.23 million to $4.59 million. Hospital spend in 2020 ranged from a few thousand dollars a year to over $280 million, with a median value of $1.56 million. The annual average increase in spend was about eight percent. In comparison, total hospital operating expenses increased at about four percent year-over-year.

The following table lists the hospitals with the highest contract labor expenses according to 2020 data from approximately 3,100 U.S. hospitals.

Hospitals with highest total contract labor expenses in 2020

Rank	Definitive ID	Hospital Name	Location	Total Contract Labor Expense
1	2191	Mayo Clinic Hospital - Saint Mary's Campus	Rochester, MN	$286,784,628
2	526	Fontana Medical Center	Fontana, CA	$200,218,085
3	366	Los Angeles Medical Center	Los Angeles, CA	$176,274,880
4	535	Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center	San Diego, CA	$156,699,820
5	303	Kaiser Permanente - Oakland Medical Center	Oakland, CA	$142,249,279
6	553293	Kaiser Permanente - Roseville Medical Center	Roseville, CA	$126,900,246
7	482	Orange County - Anaheim Medical Center	Anaheim, CA	$122,956,930
8	593	Kaiser Permanente - Santa Clara Medical Center	Santa Clara, CA	$118,333,451
9	513	Kaiser Permanente - South Sacramento Medical Center	Sacramento, CA	$112,520,748
10	367	Downey Medical Center	Downey, CA	$109,106,926
11	510	Kaiser Permanente - Sacramento Medical Center	Sacramento, CA	$105,388,874
12	564	Kaiser Permanente - Manteca Medical Center	Manteca, CA	$85,612,576
13	414	Baldwin Park Medical Center	Baldwin Park, CA	$74,933,970
14	1914	The Johns Hopkins Hospital	Baltimore, MD	$74,289,122
15	589	Kaiser Permanente - San Jose Medical Center	San Jose, CA	$72,088,840
16	555	Kaiser Permanente - San Francisco Medical Center	San Francisco, CA	$71,839,290
17	835802	Kaiser Permanente - San Leandro Medical Center	San Leandro, CA	$71,824,240
18	413	West Los Angeles Medical Center	Los Angeles, CA	$71,265,560
19	404	South Bay Medical Center	Harbor City, CA	$70,839,852
20	2442	Barnes-Jewish Hospital	Saint Louis, MO	$69,748,279

Fig. 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product. Data is sourced from the Medicare Cost Report. The most recent data is through Q3 2020 and new data is released quarterly. Accessed December 2021.

Which hospitals have the highest contract labor expenses?

The Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota spent over $286 million for contracted labor in 2020. Next, Fontana Medical Center in Fontana, California spent about $200 million and Los Angeles Medical Center spent $186 million on contract labor. These two facilities and 15 additional hospitals in the list of hospitals with the highest contract labor expenses are part of Kaiser Permanente and located in California.

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