It’s been a long few years. For many of us, the Covid-19 era has brought a number of serious challenges in the healthcare industry, from burnout to staffing issues to financial hurdles—not to mention several public health emergencies happening all at once. While I hope we’re turning a corner on the 2020s frenzy (yes, that’s how historians will fondly reflect on this time), I’m happy you’re here. Welcome to Healthcare Brew.

Our publication will explore this trillion-dollar industry at a critical point in American medicine. People are disillusioned with the healthcare system, but rely on it more than ever. Employment in the healthcare sector is projected to grow about 13% between 2021 and 2031—faster than the average for many other occupations. We’re here to help you make sense of our complex healthcare system, from understanding the flow of capital that affects bottom lines and services rendered to decisions that impact the nation at large.

In future issues, we’re excited to dig deep into issues such as healthcare technology, women’s health and maternal mortality, and cannabis’s changing role in medicine and society. I hope you'll keep reading with us for these subjects and more.

We don’t shrink from nuance. Instead, we’ll get to the heart of problems and answer the big, burning question: Why does this matter to you, the healthcare professional? Your time is valuable, and your role is vital—we want to ensure that you feel smarter and better informed after reading our coverage. Our newsletter will hit your inboxes on Mondays and Wednesdays to start. Hopefully, you’ll have some fun with us along the way.

I’m Amanda Eisenberg, editor of Healthcare Brew. I previously served as the New York City healthcare reporter for Politico. Also on our team is Los Angeles-based Maia Anderson, formerly of Insider, and Indianapolis-based Michael Schroeder, formerly of US News & World Report. Together, we’re ready to give you sweeping healthcare coverage from coast to coast.

But we can’t do it without you. Hit us up, whether that’s in our DMs—we’re on LinkedIn and on Instagram and Twitter @HealthcareBrew—or our inboxes, and share your stories stat.—AE

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @aeis17 on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Amanda for her number on Signal.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, hospitals have hired huge swaths of travel nurses to help meet the massive spike in demand for care. As the pandemic has left many nurses exhausted and traumatized, more have chosen to make the switch to third-party staffing agencies that offer more flexible working hours and much higher pay—in some cases as high as $10,000 per week.

Travel nurses are typically employed by third-party staffing agencies that a hospital calls on when in need of extra staff for a short period of time (the average assignment length is 13 weeks). An agency matches a hospital with one of their nurses, who usually temporarily relocates to work at the hospital, with travel and housing stipends sometimes provided by the agency.

Now, some health systems have decided to create their own in-house staffing agencies to compete with those third-party agencies and slow the cascade of salaried nurses leaving.

Diving in: A handful of health systems have announced their own agencies, according to Pam Damsky, director at healthcare consulting firm Chartis. However, she noted there’s no data on how widespread the trend has become.

Who’s doing it: Henry Ford Health was ahead of the curve with BestChoice Internal Staffing Resource Pool, which launched nearly a decade ago in Detroit. Novant Health started its in-house staffing agency about five years ago, but it expanded in the last year as travel nursing became more popular, said Michael Vaccaro, Novant’s senior vice president of acute inpatient nursing. And WellSpan developed its internal staffing agency in spring of 2021 after some of its nurses quit in favor of travel nursing—then a national trend, according to Bob Batory, the system’s chief human resources officer. Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @MaiaLura on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: One in five medical residents surveyed said they received a menopause lecture during their residency, and “only 7% said they felt prepared to treat menopausal women.” (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “It’s kind of like a new food that you haven’t tasted before and it looks strange.”—New York State Assemblymember Amy Paulin on human composting, an alternative burial solution that lets bodies decompose naturally (the Times Union)

Read: Hundreds of Ukrainian surrogates have delivered babies in the seven months the country has been under siege. (the New York Times)