Delta Coverage: The Analytics Journey to Implement a Novel Nurse Deployment Program

This paper introduces the Delta Coverage (DC) analytics program, an innovative solution to address the nursing shortage crisis. The program designs a new flexible nursing role supported by an accompanying analytics model for dynamic nurse staffing. Using advanced data analytics, the DC program dynamically allocates flexible nurses across multiple hospitals in response to geographical and temporal nurse demand variability. The DC analytics suite integrates a nurse-demand forecast using a deep generative model and a stochastic optimization for optimal on-call and deployment decisions. A pilot study demonstrated that the DC program reduced understaffing incidents by 17% compared to traditional travel nurse solutions, with projected annual savings of $2.5 million for the partner hospital and over $1.5 billion nationally. These results highlights the potential of the DC analytics program to transform nurse staffing practices on a broader scale.