ShiftMed Raises $200M to Expand Digital Healthcare Labor Marketplace

ShiftMed has raised $200 million to expand its digital healthcare labor marketplace.

The platform, which connects healthcare providers with licensed nurses, aims to expand its national footprint across the healthcare market, ShiftMed said in a Monday (Feb. 6) press release.

“Healthcare providers continue to struggle with access to credentialed workers as patient needs and volume continues to rise,” ShiftMed CEO Todd Walrath said in the release. “ShiftMed is positioned to provide health systems with a regulatory compliant W-2 solution that leverages local and part-time resources.”

ShiftMed focuses on providing access to local staff, rather than travel staffing, as well as an automated workforce management platform that enables workforce optimization. Together, these offerings help healthcare providers reduce their operating costs by 30% to 40%, according to the press release.

For nurses and aides, the platform provides access to flexible nursing jobs, the release said.

Nurses have long wanted more control over shifts, and they’re looking for scheduling and payment flexibility, Clipboard Health CEO and Founder Wei Deng told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted in November.

They and other healthcare workers want enough work to equal a full-time income, but “they don’t necessarily want people telling them what hours to work,” Deng said at the time.

There’s also a continued deficit of nurses and other providers that is leaving hospitals, practices and nursing homes short-staffed, Gale Healthcare Solutions Chief Financial Officer Julie Dunphy told PYMNTS in an interview posted in April.

The challenge is giving rise to creative solutions. In the case of Gale, the solution taps into the power of the gig economy to give both healthcare workers and the organizations that hire them new tools that connect them with opportunities.

ShiftMed’s solution serves 1,500 enterprise healthcare partners and 350,000 nursing professionals, according to the press release.

The company’s funding round was led by healthcare investors Panoramic Ventures, the release said.

“Healthcare providers need solutions that streamline workforce management, bring labor costs back into balance and improve patient outcomes with better care,” Panoramic Ventures General Partner Paul Iaffaldano said in the release. “We see ShiftMed’s growth as validation for the market need. The team continues to execute against a multibillion market opportunity.”