Have you witnessed the fatigue and discouragement of the remaining employees at your facility as its staff dwindles? Do you anticipate — or are you perhaps already experiencing — the point when healthcare needs outweigh your facility’s ability to meet them?
It’s not just your facility. The VA healthcare system at large is facing this difficulty. In order for your facility to rank among those who shift the balance in the other direction, you need a way to hire and keep employees.
We’ll help you begin to address the problem. Here we explain the major causes of widespread staff shortages within the VA healthcare system and discuss how a managed service provider (MSP) can be a solution that won’t spread your valuable but endangered human capital too thin.
Table of Contents
- Are There Staffing Shortages in VA Healthcare Facilities?
- 3 Unique Challenges of Veteran Healthcare That Contribute to Staffing Shortages
- How Utilizing a Healthcare MSP Can Address Staffing Shortages
- Trusted Managed Services MSP: The Solution to Staffing Shortages in VA Healthcare
Are There Staffing Shortages in VA Healthcare Facilities?
The VA Office of the Inspector General staffing report revealed significant shortages for the last fiscal year (2024):
- 137 of 139 surveyed facilities reported a severe occupational staffing shortage.
- 86% of facilities reported a staffing shortage for the position of medical officer.
- 82% of facilities reported a staffing shortage of nurses.
- Although overall shortages decreased 5% from fiscal year 2023, there remains a difficult amount of strain on VA healthcare workers as they attempt to pick up the slack.
Trusted Managed Services is striving to help facilities weather this period of staffing shortages and work toward a VA healthcare system that is less strained and better staffed.
Does the VA Have a Nursing Shortage?
82% of VA facilities need the labor and expertise of more nurses. Trusted Managed Services can supply your facility’s lack of sufficient staff nurses with agency nurses who have the flexibility to fill in where they are needed.
3 Unique Challenges of Veteran Healthcare That Contribute to Staffing Shortages
#1: Limited Access
A significant portion of veterans settle in rural areas after they finish active service. The Department of Veterans Affairs reported that 4.4 million veterans live in these areas, whether because of a lower cost of living, less crowded space, or proximity to family and recreation.
The VA healthcare workforce hasn’t adapted well to this trend because most workers prefer high-paying cities with more opportunities as their job setting. There is a disproportion between healthcare providers and the variety of needs that aging veterans present. As a result, veterans in rural areas may struggle to receive adequate healthcare.
Many, especially elderly, veterans also struggle to understand what benefits are available to them. Thus, they have a greater need for patient support and education than other sectors of the population — a need more acutely felt in the context of understaffed facilities.
#2: Distinct Needs
Because VA healthcare serves a unique population, certain specialty services are in higher demand. The workforce serving veterans is not fully able to meet the need for the necessary specialties. The most relevant are:
- Trauma and PTSD
- Mental health disorders
- Substance use disorders
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Disabilities related to injuries
Many healthcare workers are not prepared personally or trained professionally to address the needs common among veterans, so adequately staffing a facility is difficult.
#3: Budget Constraints
The Department of Veterans Affairs is responsible for preparing a yearly performance plan and budget request to Congress. House, Senate, and Conference Committees must authorize the various portions of the proposed budget for it to be executed.
Apportionments (approved funds) are not always predictable and must be dedicated only to their approved purpose.
The complexity of this process makes for an unpredictable budget, especially when needs arise in places not expressly aligned with approved portions of the plan. Thus many facilities lack the newest medical technologies that could save veterans’ lives.
For example, pulsed field ablation technology can be used to perform more accurate, less invasive, less damaging treatment for atrial fibrillation. Though the FDA approved the use of this technology in 2023, it has only been recently (January 2025) that a VA hospital pioneered its use for veterans.
Other innovations that could save many lives — if only their installation and use could be funded quickly enough — include the Watchman, an implant that prevents blood clots and reduces stroke risk.
Availability of this device, however, is not widespread. It wasn’t until near the end of 2024 that the first two Watchman procedures were performed at the St. Louis VA. Rural areas, of course, are slower to acquire and install such new technologies and the professionals who can use them.
How Utilizing a Healthcare MSP Can Address Staffing Shortages
An MSP is a third-party company that manages an organization’s IT infrastructure and systems. As they struggle to keep volumes of records and handle administrative tasks, healthcare organizations could benefit immensely from this type of aid.
Using an MSP can be advantageous for a host of reasons. MSPs perform the following functions:
- Support flexibility by employing contingent staff.
- Meet veterans’ needs with access to specialty locum tenens providers.
- Eliminate administrative burdens with automated processes.
- Decrease the organization’s staffing expenses.
Support Flexibility by Employing Contingent Staff
An MSP saves you the time-consuming work of hiring staff to supplement your workforce when you expect business to be busier or when projects demand specific credentials that aren’t sufficiently represented by the members of your staff.
Trusted Managed Services analyzes historic patient data to determine trends in their need for services. Based on this analysis, we develop hiring goals that meet the demands placed on your facility during given seasons.
Fill Vacancies in Rural Areas Where VA Facilities Are Affected the Most
If your facility is in a rural area, it is likely feeling staffing shortages much more keenly. An MSP works to place the right workers where they are needed most, giving the veterans living in previously underserved areas greater access to the care they require, whether it is general or specialized.
Utilize Contingent Staff To Accommodate Care Demands
Your MSP will hire an adequate number of qualified staff members for periods of greater stress on your facility and assign them to the appropriate positions.
A facility can quickly become overwhelmed if there are not adequate providers to address the demand for care. Using real-time technology, your MSP can determine at any time where a need is and whether there are enough qualified caregivers to attend to it.
This is why a real-time view of staff schedules and attendance is so helpful. When there is an emergency that calls staff members away from their normal posts or staff members call in sick, replacements can be made promptly. Without an MSP, your facility could be overwhelmed before the needed adjustments could be carried out.
Meet Veteran Needs With Access to Specialty Locum Tenens Care Providers
An MSP can provide specialty caregivers, whether your facility has none in a given field or they are on leave or vacation. Locum tenens professionals are hired to fill a position for a given period of time, so the veterans your facility serves won’t have to suffer in the absence of their regular caregiver.
Your MSP can find and assign locum tenens caregivers specialized in:
- Mental health
- Physical and occupational therapy
- Home health and telehealth
Eliminate Administrative Burdens With Automated Processes
MSPs are well-versed in the most efficient systems for records, organization, and other administrative tasks. Take advantage of their expertise: it will save your HR department valuable time and effort.
Streamline the Hiring and Onboarding Processes
Your HR department need not divide its attention between permanent employees and potential new ones. Let an MSP find the best candidates for each position you wish to fill.
Centralize Billing and Timekeeping
An MSP stores all information in a centralized system for billing, invoicing, and timekeeping. This system is easy, fast, and accurate. For instance, employee compensation is automatically calculated based on hours worked, including overtime, as well as bonuses and other payments.
This system can be integrated with current HR systems to allow overall performance evaluations and compliance tracking.
Staff members have direct access to their schedules and can update their availability as needed, even swapping shifts, ensuring minimal workflow interruptions.
Simplify Reporting
Centralized software also simplifies reporting between members of the healthcare team in different departments and on different shifts. More efficient reporting leaves more time for focused patient care.
Spend Less on Staffing
A healthcare MSP can save your facility considerable funds by:
- Relieving staff of time-consuming tasks
- Reducing contingent staff when appropriate
- Converting temporary staff to permanent staff without fees
- Giving you insight about competitive pay for contingent staff
- Saving onboarding and benefits spending
Trusted Managed Services MSP: The Solution to Staffing Shortages in VA Healthcare
As the VA healthcare system continues to creak under the weight of its ever-increasing burden, MSPs are becoming more necessary to make personal patient care possible.
Trusted Managed Services has worked for a decade and a half to provide facilities with the hands they need to keep this important work running smoothly. We have a pool of over 195,000 nurses and other allied health professionals available for service in various places.
When you partner with us, we will take the following steps to establish our service as one of your most important assets:
- Assess your staffing needs.
- Draft a plan to meet these needs, including access to our pool of talented candidates.
- Stay in close contact with you to ensure our team is solving the problems you hired us to solve.
We work carefully with facilities in need of qualified staff and healthcare providers in need of satisfactory placement. Our close acquaintance with both sides ensure an optimal arrangement between the facility and its employees.
As we advocate for candidates we place in given assignments, they operate from the assurance that their services will be supported and compensated suitably. As we seek ways to meet your facility’s pressing needs, you enjoy relief from administrative burdens and the procurement of proven professionals to serve your veterans.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can solve your staffing shortage.
