Main Line Health is one of the many local health systems that are raising nurses’ salaries and offering other incentives in an effort to stave off a shortage, writes Harold Brubaker for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The health system that includes Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital, and Riddle Hospital in addition to Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, currently employs 1,900 nurses, up from 1,700 in 2019.

The problem its hospitals are facing is not attracting nurses right out of school, but finding nurses with experience.

“What we’re seeing is more retirements, and we’re also seeing challenges with specialties, so things like labor and delivery, emergency department, surgical services, operating room nurses, and maybe a little bit of ICU,” said chief nursing officer Barbara Wadsworth.

In order to keep nurses from leaving and attract new hires, Main Line has spent $8.5 million on pay raises in the past 18 months on nurses’ salaries.

That includes a million dollars this month. Seven out of ten nurses received raises in that period of up to nine percent. The health system also raised nurses’ starting rates, but did not disclose the exact amount of nurses’ salaries.

Read more about Main Line Health in The Philadelphia Inquirer.