Dropstat, a Palms-based workforce automation platform, is using artificial intelligence to help health care organizations address widespread staffing shortages, manage shift gaps and streamline scheduling. It closed a $5.5 million seed funding round at the end of May, led by Atlanta-based Panoramic Ventures. 

Sara Well, founder and chief executive of Dropstat, said that the platform’s AI helps health care facilities anticipate staffing shortages two months in advance by looking at factors such as when physicians and nurses will be using vacation time, on family or medical leave and whether some employees will be retiring or leaving in that time. It also considers historical data to anticipate when health care demand may spike, such as around holidays. Dropstat’s clients include general hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes and long-term acute care hospitals.

Well said that when hospitals or care facilities are short on staff, they will often outsource work through contracting services or labor agencies. She said that these outside nurses and physicians can cost the facility more money than they would spend to bring in employees from other departments or incentivize other nurses to pick up open shifts. As a former critical care nurse, she said that many hospital systems can’t communicate shift openings across departments, which silos outreach about staffing needs. Dropstat says it can also help reduce overtime usage by helping employers finding available staff to fill shifts.

“Imagine you’re the CEO of a health care organization, you want those shifts to first be communicated to your internal staff, and then anyone who’s cross trained to work your department,” Well said. 

The American Hospital Association estimates that there will be a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2033. It also estimates that at least 200,000 nurses will need to be hired per year to match demand and replace existing workers who will retire. Dropstat can be used in all shift departments and doesn’t only provide staffing support for nurses, but Well said that it’s the position area where Dropstat can save facilities the most money.
“If health systems don’t have the ability to automate their processes in this way to make sure that you’ve exhausted internal options before you seek outsourced labor, the cost of care delivery is going to be crippling,” Well said. “We’re already seeing health care organizations start to close. My concern is that if we think food deserts are scary, health care deserts will be a lot scarier … that will in turn also puts pressure on the remaining health systems, on those emergency rooms, and they don’t have the resources right now to withstand those numbers.”