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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