With about a month-and-a-half to go before Penn Medicine's $1.6 billion Pavilion makes its debut, the health system still has hundreds positions to fill at the 504-bed hospital building in West Philadelphia.
Penn Medicine recently launched what it is calling a "massive recruitment effort" to hire more than 600 people for the 17-story project. The Philadelphia health system is offering various bonuses — some as high as $15,000 — to draw people in.
The health system has already hired more than 100 new employees for the building, which is 1.5 million square feet in size and includes 47 operating rooms.
The majority of positions that remain to be filled are for nurses. Penn Medicine officials said they also need to hire respiratory therapists, lab professionals, security officers, environmental service employees and others positions.
The Pavilion is scheduled to open Oct. 30.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System has about 44,000 employees systemwide. About 10,000 staff members are being trained to work in the Pavilion, which will operate as part of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). Not all of the workers will be at the site on a daily basis.
“Although the Pavilion is an extension of HUP, the location, size, and scope of the building require us to fill a significant number of clinical and non-clinical positions," said Denise Mariotti, HUP's chief human resources officer.
Penn Medicine is offering sign-on bonuses and incentives to new hires at a time when the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is causing staffing issues for many hospitals and health system locally and nationally.
Examples of those sign-on and retention bonuses at Penn Medicine include:
$15,000 sign-on bonus for certified registered nurse anesthetists;
$5,000 sign-on bonus for respiratory therapists; and
$7,500 retention bonus for medical laboratory scientists consisting of $2,500 at completion of six months’ probation, $2,500 at completion of one year; $2,500 at completion of a second year.
The health system also offers referral bonuses, typically $2,500, to current employees who refer people hired for a variety of clinical roles including nurses.
