HAP Achievement Awards: Jefferson Health

July 02, 2026

HAP's annual Achievement Awards honor hospitals and health systems for their innovation, creativity, and commitment to patient care. The Achievement Awards showcase and share member hospitals’ and health systems’ successful programs and best practices.

Jefferson Health received the Workforce Innovators Award for transforming their nursing workforce through talent pipeline development and an employee-driven staffing model that prioritizes flexibility, career growth, and retention.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The challenge:  Nursing workforce instability created staffing gaps, high labor costs, and growing pressure on patient access, care quality, and nurse engagement.
• Addressing the Issue:  Listening sessions with leaders and frontline nurses revealed the need for more flexible staffing models, stronger talent pipelines, and better ways for nurses to help shape workforce decisions.
• Taking Action:  A more flexible staffing model was built around the Service, Excellence, Advocacy and Leadership nursing team, a group of nurses deployed to areas of greatest need, while virtual nursing support, stronger talent pipelines, and frontline input helped strengthen the broader workforce strategy.
• Results:   Premium pay dropped by more than $6 million per month, while nursing vacancies and turnover both improved across the system.
• Advancing Care:  The strategy recognizes that stronger patient care starts with a more supported nursing workforce, with the project noting that the work was “designed to support our nurses with the same dedication and commitment they bring to supporting our patients and the larger health system.”

Congratulations to Jefferson Health for its outstanding efforts to strengthen the health care workforce and transform care delivery. Learn more about the project online.

Questions about the HAP Achievement Awards may be directed to HAP Member Services at (717) 561-5359.