The vacancy isalready on your budget.
Cost of not solving it.
Depending on specialty, overtime, and travel-nurse coverage.
NSI 2026 average per bedside RN, before the cost of refilling that role even begins.
The premium you are carrying, calculated live.
300 to 700 RN FTEs. Sets a conservative base case you can overwrite.
Budgeted positions unfilled by permanent staff. National average is 8.6% (NSI 2026).
National average is 17.6%, ranging 5.6% to 40.0% by bed size (NSI 2026).
The remainder, set automatically so the allocation always totals 100%. These are the seats currently covered by overtime.
A global haircut on gross savings. Base is 1.00x.
Adjust the rate benchmarks
All-in. Conservative against the ~$102 national average.
Wage plus about 28% benefits and differentials. Excluded as a program cost, since you pay it for any staff nurse in the seat.
NSI 2026 average per bedside RN, soft costs included.
at full run-rate on 20 placements, counted from the day each nurse starts
| The staffing gap you are covering today | FTEs |
|---|---|
| Vacant RN positions | 43 |
| Covered by travel and agency | 30 |
| Open gap absorbed by overtime | 13 |
| Overtime premium spent on that gap, per year | $559,000 |
These are gross savings: the premium spend that stops. They are shown before what the program costs you, because your investment depends on the roles, the timeline and the volume, and we would rather quote it than have you guess at it. Benchmarks come from the NSI 2026 National Health Care Retention Report and Nurse.org 2024, listed in full below. Each driver is scoped so nothing is counted twice: travel and agency seats are counted once as premium labor, while overtime and turnover apply only to the open vacancies your nurses fill. Send us your figures and we will run the net model, assumptions shown.
Where the math actually changes.
Avoided turnover cost
Reduced overtime & agency premiums
Quality scores & shorter stays
Sustained revenue
Tell us a little about your hospital.
You are already paying for this.
The premium above is not a projection, it is spend that is already in your budget under other names. The only question is whether it keeps buying temporary coverage or buys a permanent nurse instead.