The ASHHRA Podcast

Hosted by Robert "Bo" Brabo and Luke Carignan

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258

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Healthcare runs on people. The ASHHRA Podcast is where the leaders responsible for those people come to think out loud. As the official podcast of ASHHRA (the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration), this show has built a library of 250+ episodes for one audience: the CHROs, CPOs, VPs, and directors leading the healthcare workforce. Every week, hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan sit down with the executives doing the hard work inside hospitals and health systems. Past guests include leaders from AdventHealth, Universal Health Services, Advocate Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and UC Health. These are unscripted, practitioner-to-practitioner conversations about what actually works, what didn't, and what they'd do differently. WHAT WE COVER Workforce shortages and retention. Leader and caregiver burnout. Culture and identity. Labor relations. Total rewards and benefits strategy. AI and HR technology. Policy and regulatory shifts. The people decisions that shape patient care. TWO WAYS TO LISTEN The Weekly News Drop: the week's most important healthcare HR headlines, what they mean for your organization, and what to do about them on Monday morning. Guest Conversations: deep dives with the leaders solving real workforce problems right now. MEET YOUR HOSTS Bo Brabo is Vice President of People Solutions (Healthcare) at Lockton and a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer who served as a Soldier for ten years at the White House, including as a Presidential Communications Officer for two Presidents. Luke Carignan is Strategic Director of Healthcare at Phenom and brings the story behind the strategy. Together they're optimistic but honest, and warm but never soft. If you lead HR for a health system, shape workforce strategy, or influence culture anywhere in healthcare, this is your briefing. No theory. No fluff. Just leaders in the arena, sharing what they've learned. Subscribe, share it with your team, and join the conversation at ashhra.org.

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October 15, 2026Episode 5346 min

#260 - ChenMed's Jeff Battinus on Agentic AI Recruiting, and the 78% Who Chose the AI Interview

Featuring Jeff Battinus, VP of Talent Attraction and Selection, ChenMed, and Yaniv Shimoni, Co-Founder, Take2 Disclosure: Take2 is a sponsor of The ASHHRA Podcast. Twenty-two years in healthcare recruiting, and Jeff Battinus says his career is changing in front of his face. He joins Bo with Take2 co-founder Yaniv Shimoni to separate real agentic AI from the version that is a sticker on an old process. 🤖 Agent or Bumper Sticker Battinus's test is blunt. Most of the big vendors, he argues, bolted AI onto applicant tracking systems that were already stacked on top of the fax machine and the Rolodex. A real agent executes on your behalf around the clock. A wrapper hands you recommendations and waits. Action: Peel one layer. Ask a vendor what the agent does without a human starting it. 📊 What the Interview Data Shows Chicago Booth and Erasmus researchers ran a field experiment with 70,000 applicants. Roughly 78% chose a voice AI interview over a human recruiter, and the AI-screened candidates were likelier to get offers and still be there at 30 days. Take2 reports 57% of the applicants it interviews start outside business hours. Key Takeaway: Candidates are voting with the clock. Nobody staffs a recruiter at 11pm. 🩺 Where the Savings Land At Dental Care Alliance, across 141 brands, Battinus says the interview module alone returned seven figures he pushed back toward patient care. His framing throughout is access, not efficiency: unlock the constraint, get a clinician in front of a patient faster. HR Risk: Systems moving at this pace recruit from your labor pool, and they reach the offer letter first. ⚡ What Comes Next Take2 is building pre-boarding agents for license verification, background checks, and forms, with a personal agent assigned to each new hire. Battinus predicts recruiting is 90% automated inside five years, with the human kept for the sell and the hiring-manager relationship. Action: His parting line is the sharpest in the episode. If talent acquisition does not do this, finance will do it for you. Shimoni's close is the gentler version. Adoption is not required today. Curiosity is. Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. Our October Sponsors AP3 This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Clasp This episode is supported by Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. You found two great candidates. Made two offers. One took the bigger sign-on bonus from the system across town. The other started, and was out the door six months later. That bonus is history, and now you're paying agency premiums to re-fill the role. Sound familiar? Top health systems are done with this cycle. They've partnered with Clasp for loan-linked hiring that helps them reach candidates ahead of competitors, secure the hire with a truly differentiated offer, and retain them for multiple years by investing where it matters most: their student debt. Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. Visit clasp.com . ShiftKey This episode is brought to you by ShiftKey — empowering hospitals to deliver quality care on demand. When census swings and acuity spikes, your team needs flexibility — not 12-week contracts, agency minimums, or exclusivity. ShiftKey is the most powerful marketplace that gives you direct access to local, credentialed independent clinicians who are ready to work. With a presence in more than 430 markets nationwide, ShiftKey connects you with fast, quality coverage when you need it. Post a shift. Review the professionals who request it. Choose who fits your standards. Get coverage in minutes. No long-term commitments. No hidden fees. Start posting shifts today at ShiftKey.com . Support the show

October 13, 2026Episode 5430 min

#259 - Healthcare HR News, October 2026: GLP-1 Coverage at 36%, Gen Z at 30% of RNs, Predicting Attrition

Bo and Jeremy are back from the ASHHRA Executive Summit in Savannah, Luke held the fort, and the three of them land on one theme: the systems that win are not doing anything magical. They are deciding earlier than everyone else. 💊 The GLP-1 Decision You Cannot Keep Deferring One in eight American adults is on a GLP-1 right now, per KFF. IFEBP's June 2026 pulse survey puts employer coverage for weight loss at 36%, and 19% of employers have already dropped it. Jeremy's read from the summit: candidates already on a GLP-1 are choosing hospital A over hospital B on this benefit, and the fear holding systems back is the rebound cost when people come off it. Action : Do the feasibility study on the whole HR spend, not one line. Ask how you are procuring it, through the PBM or a capitated model, before you decide you cannot afford it. https://www.beckerspayer.com/research-analysis/employer-coverage-of-glp-1s-for-diabetes-weight-loss-remains-steady-at-36-survey/ 🧑‍⚕️ Gen Z Is 30% of Your RNs. Are You Managing for Them? AONL and Laudio's Spring 2026 study of 100,000 RNs: Gen Z is now 30% of inpatient and ED nurses, the only generation still growing, and needs about 2.5 times the manager touchpoints of millennials to get the same retention gain. Five documented interactions in a quarter is worth about 5 points of retention. Most new grads start on nights, where the leaders are not. Key Takeaway : Luke's point stands. We saw this coming and did not change the management system. Feedback in the moment, not at the annual review. https://www.aonl.org/system/files/media/file/2026/03/AONL-Laudio-Insights-Engaging-and-Retaining-Gen-Z-Nurses-Spring2026.pdf 📉 Seeing the Resignation Before the Notice Healthcare built sepsis alerts and readmission models because seeing a bad outcome early lets you intervene. The workforce data for the same move already sits in your HRIS and scheduling software: shift pickup, overtime, PTO patterns, training logins. NSI puts a bedside RN replacement at $60,090 and first-year RN turnover at 22.7%. HR Risk: Jeremy's counter is the sharper one. The analytics only confirm what good leaders already do. Apply the fixes to everyone now and you need the model less. https://www.nsinursingsolutions.com/documents/library/nsi_national_health_care_retention_report.pdf 🔎 This Week's 3 Mission-Critical Moves Put one of the three on your next leadership agenda and answer honestly: do we have a position on this? Jeremy starts with GLP-1 coverage. Luke, running a system over 10,000 employees, starts all three today. Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. Our October Sponsors AP3 This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Clasp This episode is supported by Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. You found two great candidates. Made two offers. One took the bigger sign-on bonus from the system across town. The other started, and was out the door six months later. That bonus is history, and now you're paying agency premiums to re-fill the role. Sound familiar? Top health systems are done with this cycle. They've partnered with Clasp for loan-linked hiring that helps them reach candidates ahead of competitors, secure the hire with a truly differentiated offer, and retain them for multiple years by investing where it matters most: their student debt. Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. Visit clasp.com . ShiftKey This episode is brought to you by ShiftKey — empowering hospitals to deliver quality care on demand. When census swings and acuity spikes, your team needs flexibility — not 12-week contracts, agency minimums, or exclusivity. ShiftKey is the most powerful marketplace that gives you direct access to local, credentialed independent clinicians who are ready to work. With a presence in more than 430 markets nationwide, ShiftKey connects you with fast, quality coverage when you need it. Post a shift. Review the professionals who request it. Choose who fits your standards. Get coverage in minutes. No long-term commitments. No hidden fees. Start posting shifts today at ShiftKey.com . Support the show

October 8, 2026Episode 5115 min

#258 - 64% of Rural Health Leaders Expect a Physician Retirement. Only 41% Have a Succession Plan.

Luke Carignan runs this one solo while Bo and Jeremy are in Savannah for the ASHHRA Executive Summit. One theme ties the week together: your move. Every story lands on a decision that sits in an HR office. 🩺 The Physician Succession Crisis Nobody Scheduled New research from MGMA, Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com found 64% of rural administrators expect a physician to retire or cut back within five years, and only 41% have a formal succession plan. Two-thirds of the significant physician vacancies from the past three years are still open searches today. Action: Name the physicians who are five to ten years out, then start the conversation before anyone gives notice. This is succession planning, and succession planning lives in HR. https://jacksonhealthcare.com/new-research-from-mgma-jackson-physician-search-and-locumtenens-com-gives-rural-health-leaders-a-strategy-for-sustaining-specialty-care/ 🪜 91% Believe It. 64% Build It. MedCity News reported this summer that 91% of healthcare employers say internal career laddering improves retention, while 64% actually offer it. Pay is table stakes now and it buys transactions, not loyalty. What holds people is knowing there is a next step with their name on it. Key Takeaway: The gap between 91 and 64 is a decision, not a budget line. Pathways feel like a long-term investment to leaders managing a short-term crisis, and the systems that built them are less short staffed today. https://medcitynews.com/2026/07/healthcare-retention-depends-on-better-pathways-not-just-better-pay/ 📈 The Fragile Recovery Is a Workforce Story Fitch projects median operating margins of 1% to 2% for nonprofit hospitals in 2026. Thin, but up. The systems recovering fastest got labor costs down by keeping people rather than cutting them, because every nurse who walks costs roughly $60,000 to replace and every travel contract raises cost per hour. HR Risk: A CHRO who cannot quantify what retention returned to the margin is arguing from feeling in a room that runs on numbers. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/nonprofit-hospital-sector-notch-modest-margin-gains-2026-systems-tighten-ahead-medicaid 🔎 This Week's 3 Mission-Critical Moves Put one physician succession conversation on the calendar. Scope one career ladder in one department. Put a dollar figure on what retention saved you this year. Our October Sponsors AP3 This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Clasp This episode is supported by Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. You found two great candidates. Made two offers. One took the bigger sign-on bonus from the system across town. The other started, and was out the door six months later. That bonus is history, and now you're paying agency premiums to re-fill the role. Sound familiar? Top health systems are done with this cycle. They've partnered with Clasp for loan-linked hiring that helps them reach candidates ahead of competitors, secure the hire with a truly differentiated offer, and retain them for multiple years by investing where it matters most: their student debt. Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. Visit clasp.com . ShiftKey This episode is brought to you by ShiftKey — empowering hospitals to deliver quality care on demand. When census swings and acuity spikes, your team needs flexibility — not 12-week contracts, agency minimums, or exclusivity. ShiftKey is the most powerful marketplace that gives you direct access to local, credentialed independent clinicians who are ready to work. With a presence in more than 430 markets nationwide, ShiftKey connects you with fast, quality coverage when you need it. Post a shift. Review the professionals who request it. Choose who fits your standards. Get coverage in minutes. No long-term commitments. No hidden fees. Start posting shifts today at ShiftKey.com . Support the show

October 7, 2026Episode 5036 min

#257 - Nationwide Children's Inclusion Lead on Belonging, Discernment, and the 44-Day New Hire Window

Featuring Dominiece Hoelyfield , Lead Inclusion and Culture Consultant, Nationwide Children's Hospital Bo opens with a question worth sitting with. The last time you walked into your workplace, did you feel like you belonged? Not tolerated, not accommodated, not represented in the right percentage on a slide. Dominiece Hoelyfield has spent a decade and a half on the difference, and she answers it as a practitioner rather than a program. 🧭 Serve the People Who Serve the People Healthy employees deliver better care to families who arrive at their most vulnerable. That is the whole chain, and Hoelyfield puts her work at the front of it. Nationwide Children's just landed on the U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll for the 13th consecutive year. **Key Takeaway:** In most communities the health system is a top-five employer, which makes its workforce a direct reflection of the community it treats. 🪟 What Belonging Actually Looks Like New hires decide fast. BambooHR puts the window at 44 days. What fills it is unglamorous: who introduces you to stakeholders, whether policy is fair, whether anyone checks in when you are running at 40% and still expected to give 100%. **Action:** Audit the first six weeks, not the first day. Onboarding is where belonging is won or lost. 🤫 Reading What Is Not Said Hoelyfield runs cultural audits by handing the room the driver's seat. The group writes its own ground rules, then she asks questions and listens past the answers. The hesitation, the stutter, the shift in posture. That is where the real answer sits. **HR Risk:** A leader who takes a call during a one-on-one has told that person they do not matter. Quiet quitting starts there. ⚖️ Discernment Over Reaction Her closing advice, and the line of the episode: not everything needs to be addressed, but everything requires discernment. In an organization of thousands, one decision ripples, and no single decision represents every employee. Change is consistent. Growth is optional. Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. Our October Sponsors AP3 This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Clasp This episode is supported by Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. You found two great candidates. Made two offers. One took the bigger sign-on bonus from the system across town. The other started, and was out the door six months later. That bonus is history, and now you're paying agency premiums to re-fill the role. Sound familiar? Top health systems are done with this cycle. They've partnered with Clasp for loan-linked hiring that helps them reach candidates ahead of competitors, secure the hire with a truly differentiated offer, and retain them for multiple years by investing where it matters most: their student debt. Clasp — the missing link to lasting talent. Visit clasp.com . ShiftKey This episode is brought to you by ShiftKey — empowering hospitals to deliver quality care on demand. When census swings and acuity spikes, your team needs flexibility — not 12-week contracts, agency minimums, or exclusivity. ShiftKey is the most powerful marketplace that gives you direct access to local, credentialed independent clinicians who are ready to work. With a presence in more than 430 markets nationwide, ShiftKey connects you with fast, quality coverage when you need it. Post a shift. Review the professionals who request it. Choose who fits your standards. Get coverage in minutes. No long-term commitments. No hidden fees. Start posting shifts today at ShiftKey.com . Support the show

September 29, 2026Episode 4913 min

#256 - Yale Study: Ambient AI Cut Burnout 13 Points, Cleveland Clinic Apprentices Hit 95% Retention

Luke Carignan runs this one solo and flips the format. No crisis, no warnings. Three healthcare workforce stories that went right, and three things healthcare HR can act on because of them. 🩺 Ambient AI Moved Burnout in 30 Days Yale researchers put an ambient AI scribe in front of 263 clinicians across six health systems. Burnout fell from 51.9% to 38.8% in a month. Cognitive load dropped, after-hours charting dropped, and clinicians reported more eye contact with patients. Action: Find out whether ambient scribing sits on your technology roadmap or in an IT queue as a physician preference item. The data makes it a workforce strategy. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2839542 🏆 165 Organizations Proved Culture Repeats Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work list carried 165 honorees across every size and region. Guadalupe Regional Medical Center has made it eight years running, Peterson Health six, Unity Medical Center five. Employees have to say it in an independent survey. Key Takeaway: Community hospitals and specialty providers are on this list, so "we are too small" does not survive contact with the roster. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/165-top-places-to-work-in-healthcare-2026/ 🔧 Cleveland Clinic Built the Pipeline Instead of Buying It Registered apprenticeships in pharmacy, EEG, ophthalmology and sleep medicine. Apprentice retention climbed from 75% to 95% in a single year, and the system beat its apprentice hiring goal by 50%. Healthcare apprenticeships are up 43% over five years, near 37,000 nationally. HR Risk: At roughly $60,000 to replace one bedside RN, every retention point you leave on the table is a budget line. https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/tips-to-bolster-apprenticeship-program-success 🔎 This Week's 3 Mission-Critical Moves Put ambient scribing into the roadmap conversation. Ask your people what they would actually say in that survey. Name one thin-pipeline specialty and price out an apprenticeship. Luke's challenge lands harder than any of it. Find one person this week and tell them out loud what they do well. Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. AP3 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Take2 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by Take2 — the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare. Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that. Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role. Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform. Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started. Support the show

September 25, 2026Episode 4846 min

#255 - OhioHealth Cut Time to Fill 42% in One Year: Noe Arceo's Four Knows of Healthcare Recruiting

Featuring Noe Arceo , Vice President of Talent Acquisition & Workforce Development, OhioHealth Noe Arceo calls the team he joined at OhioHealth a good team with good bones. His first year went into the parts of the hiring process they could control, and time to fill came down 42%. The method behind it fits on a single sheet of paper he has carried since his Baylor Scott & White days. 🎯 The Four Knows Twenty years of healthcare recruiting compressed into four habits: know the business, know your pipeline, know the players, know your numbers. Miss one and you become an order taker. Run all four and you open the leader meeting with "we ran four interviews this week and three more are queued" instead of asking what's going on. Key Takeaway: The framework guides your style, it does not replace it. 🧬 Culture DNA at OhioHealth The strategy OhioHealth calls Mission Mountain points at one North Star: the most trusted, easiest to use health system in the country, grounded in safety. Arceo turns that into empowering staff as moment makers, the Nordstrom and Chick-fil-A standard applied to a patient who could get the same MRI anywhere. Action: Stop running belonging work off the side of someone's desk. His team launched a Hispanic and Latino business resource group that drew 100+ people to its first event, then hired a dedicated quarterback so the next one runs clean. 🌡️ The 212 Degree Rule Water at 211 degrees is hot. At 212 it boils. Arceo bought his whole team 212 The Extra Degree by Sam Parker and Mac Anderson because the ask is not more work, it is one more thing. One more candidate touchpoint builds trust. One written offer letter behind the verbal one keeps a start date from slipping. HR Risk: A candidate who starts late rarely finishes year one strong. Metrics create anxiety in a healthcare HR team before they create momentum. Arceo's answer borrows from Ted Lasso: staying stuck hurts more than blossoming does. *Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. AP3 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Take2 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by Take2 — the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare. Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that. Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role. Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform. Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started. Support the show

September 22, 2026Episode 4743 min

#254 - Healthcare HR News, September 2026: NEJM on AI Jobs, 800 Facilities at Risk, 56 AI-Ready Workflows

Eight hundred hospitals, nursing homes, maternal wards, and psychiatric centers have already closed, cut services, or landed at risk. Not projected. Already happened. Three stories this week, and every one of them lands on an HR desk. 🤖 NEJM: AI Grows the Clinical Workforce Dhruv Khullar of Weill Cornell Medicine published the counter-argument on September 12. Cheaper care means more care, not less work, and one critical failure at any stage still requires a human watching. If he is right, the shortage gets worse, not better. Action: build pipelines now, and stop assuming a four-year degree is the only on-ramp. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2607831 💸 800 Facilities and the Medicaid Math The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut $625 billion from Medicaid over ten years, with 16 million projected to lose coverage. The hardest part has not landed yet. In December 2026, states must implement work requirements, verifying 80 hours a month of qualifying activity every six months. Somebody processes all that paperwork. HR Risk: making workforce decisions on a guess about coverage you cannot confirm. Jeremy's read is to hold steady until the financial hit is real rather than cut ahead of it. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/medicaid-cuts-threaten-hundreds-hospitals-new-report-finds-rcna265789 ⚙️ 56 Workflows Ready for Agentic AI Right Now The deployment story is administrative, not clinical. Patient verification, scheduling, prior authorization, documentation, coding, billing. AWS launched a platform aimed straight at them, and more than 80% of healthcare executives expect real value this fiscal year, not in five. Aultman Health System in Ohio moved IT staff into auditor and strategist roles instead of cutting them. Key Takeaway: the same claim-denial logic runs faster with agents, so decide now what empathy looks like in an automated process. https://www.lisatmiller.com/agentic-health/ 🔎 This Week's 3 Mission-Critical Moves - Ask your team which manual task eats the most of their week. Eight hours is 20% of a job, so five people doing it costs you a full headcount. - Name your own 56. Find the workflows where the time is spent waiting, not working. - Decide where the human stays, on purpose, before the workflow decides for you. The clinical AI story is still coming. The operational one already arrived. Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. AP3 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Take2 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by Take2 — the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare. Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that. Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role. Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform. Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started. Support the show

September 21, 2026Episode 4639 min

#253 - Healthcare M&A Is Up 33% in 2026: Franciscan Health's Kellie Woods on Building the Pipeline First

Featuring Kellie Woods, Manager of Talent Acquisition, Franciscan Health Most people running talent acquisition at a large health system started at a large health system. Kellie Woods didn't. She spent years at two independent community hospitals in Northwest Indiana, watched both get absorbed, and now covers nursing, physician practices, home health and hospice across eleven hospitals with a team of seven. That path shows in how she reads what is coming. 🏥 A Hospital Is a Small Community The boiler tech, the cook, the housekeeper, all of them move patient outcomes. Talent acquisition sits in that same line. Without hiring, there is no hospital. Key Takeaway: recruiters are not back office, they are the front end of patient care. 🤝 Give the Hiring Manager Grace Kellie's team read Let Them together, and it changed how they handle slow approvals. The manager sitting on your interview guide may have just come off a code. Action: assume the best, then follow up anyway. Both things can be true. 📈 Growth Is Back, and This Time It Is a Choice Q2 2026 healthcare M&A is up 33 percent, and two of every three deals came from systems seeking partners rather than avoiding collapse. UHS paid $835 million for Talkspace. Freestanding EDs keep opening. HR Risk: TA hears about the strategy after the ink dries, then gets asked to staff it. Franciscan is building its own DO program in Crown Point to grow the physicians it cannot hire. 🔁 Never Leave a Candidate on the Table Twenty-three years in, her best tip is the plainest one. Circle back. Keep a list of the people for whom the timing was wrong. Remember one or two things about them. They remember that you remembered. The pipeline gets built before the deal is announced, or it does not get built at all. Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode . AP3 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Take2 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by Take2 — the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare. Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that. Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role. Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform. Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started. Support the show

September 18, 2026Episode 4542 min

#252 - Nurse Turnover Costs $61,000 per Replacement: Infirmary Health's Ivy Singley on Hiring in 2026

Featuring Ivy Singley, Director of Employment Services and Workforce Development, Infirmary Health Replacing one bedside nurse ran just over $61,000 last year. Every single percentage point of RN turnover swings the average hospital's bottom line by roughly $290,000 a year. Treating that as a pipeline problem misses what happens inside the walls every day, and Ivy Singley has spent almost 30 years in those walls. 🚫 Retire the Word "Resilience" Naming resilience as a core trait tells candidates they will work in chaos. Boomers hear grit. This generation hears sunup to sundown and passes. HR Risk: your job postings may be screening out the people you most want. 🤖 AI Belongs on the Front End, Not the Final Call Ivy uses AI for screening, sourcing, and executive summaries that let HR hold its own in a strategy conversation. She draws the line at choosing. A resume written by AI reads beautifully until the candidate cannot explain the procedure they claimed. Key Takeaway: screen with the tool, decide with a human. ⏱️ 95% of the Recruiting Cycle Is Waiting Luke reverse-engineered a system hiring 10,000 people a year with 20 recruiters. Screening to pre-boarding averages 18 days industry-wide, and only about 5% of that is actual work. The rest is a nurse applying at 10pm Saturday and nobody touching it until Monday. Action: attack the queue, not the headcount. No number of recruiters closes that gap. 👥 Same-Day, Multi-Layer Interviews Infirmary Health interviews with the hiring manager, runs a tour, and puts the candidate in front of a peer panel, often in one day. Candidates behave for the manager and open up with peers, and the hire becomes a collective decision instead of one manager's guess. Careers: infirmaryhealth.org/careers You cannot hire your way out of a waiting problem, and you cannot automate your way out of a judgment one. Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. AP3 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Take2 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by Take2 — the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare. Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that. Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role. Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform. Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started. Support the show

September 16, 2026Episode 4435 min

#251 - Healthcare HR News, September 2026: ChatGPT in Epic, 40 Hospital Mergers, 92% Bracing for Strain

ChatGPT Is Inside Epic, 40 Mergers in Six Months, and 92% Bracing for Strain Three stories, one direction. Technology is accelerating, consolidation is accelerating, and the people running health systems have stopped waiting to see how it shakes out. 🤖 ChatGPT Now Reads Epic Charts: 325 Million Patient Records and What Healthcare HR Does Next On September 1, OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Healthcare with a direct Epic integration. Clinicians pull visit notes, labs, medications and specialist records into ChatGPT without leaving the workflow. Epic holds 325 million patient records across 1,000-plus US hospitals. UCSF Health is already piloting it. Read-only for now, plus a public data plugin wired to nine sources including PubMed and CMS coverage. HR Risk: once it works on the clinical side, the question becomes why it isn't in Workday, your ATS, and the rest of your HR stack. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/01/chatgpt-health-adds-epic-integration-for-clinicians-to-import-patient-data/ 🏥 40 Hospital Mergers in Six Months: Why 2026 Consolidation Accelerated Past 2025 2025 saw 46 hospital mergers, the fewest in 15 years. The first half of 2026 already produced 40. WVU Health System is putting $800 million into acquiring Independence Health, five nonprofit hospitals in western Pennsylvania. Prisma and Erlanger, Sanford and North Memorial. Two of every three deals came from systems seeking partners, not systems bleeding out. Action: if you get absorbed, your hardest job is protecting community culture while payroll systems, retirement plans and physician contracts all get merged. https://medcitynews.com/2026/09/hospital-mergers-summer-2026/ 📉 FTI Consulting 2026 Survey: 92% of Hospital Leaders Expect a Decade of Financial Strain FTI Consulting surveyed more than 200 hospital CEOs, CFOs and COOs. 92% expect major or moderate financial strain over the next decade. 86% named physician recruitment. And for the first time, workforce pressure outranked quality of care as the top clinical concern. Key Takeaway: payroll and benefits run 50 to 60 percent of the budget, so leadership is coming to HR first. https://fticommunications.com/2026-hospital-operations-outlook-survey-report/ 🔎 AI, Mergers, and Margin Pressure: The Three Forces Hitting Healthcare HR in 2026 - Ask your CMO or CIO whether your system has evaluated the Epic and ChatGPT integration. If they have not heard of it, you are the one bringing the signal. - Find a mentor who has run an integration, or be that mentor for someone who has not. - Put your biggest spend lines on the table before someone else does it for you. The leaders moving right now decided that waiting was the riskier option. AP3 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program. Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise. Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare. No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform. Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner. Take2 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by Take2 — the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare. Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that. Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role. Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform. Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started. Support the show