The State of the Industry: SpringBoard Healthcare Releases Results of the 2019 Cath/IR/EP Wage Survey

SpringBoard Healthcare, a Phoenix-based healthcare staffing and education company, announces the release of its 2019 wage survey results. Over 1,600 cath, interventional radiology (IR) and electrophysiology (EP) nurses and technologists from across the United States took part in the bi-annual survey.

“This is the fifth survey SpringBoard has conducted over almost a decade,” said Gavin Hays, CEO of SpringBoard Healthcare. “With several years of data now gathered, we are excited to not only report on the status of wages within our industry for 2019, but to also share some trends within Cath, IR and EP wages nationwide over the last several years.”

“We collaborated with partners this year to spread the word about the survey, including Corazon, a consultancy and recruitment firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, that works with programs across the country to develop, expand, or initiate cardiac service lines,” shared Hays. “Corazon offered some insights about how the survey results provide value within our industry.”

According to Steve Geyer, Senior Vice President of Corazon, “In terms of the data gathered from this wage survey, our team finds this information helpful as we assist clients with determining staffing needs for their new or expanded programs.”  He also noted that “as competition for clinical cardiovascular talent becomes increasingly competitive, knowing wage and other trends can assist with the overall hiring process.”

It Pays to Travel

Of note, is that since 2011 when the first survey was conducted, it continues to pay to be a “traveler” — a healthcare professional who travels from location to location on assignments. Traveling healthcare professionals continue to make significantly more than their non-traveling counterparts. In 2019, the regional difference was almost 32% in favor of travelers. Trend analysis across all surveys show an increase of almost $12, or near 23%, for travelers between 2011 and 2019, whereas the increase between these years for non-traveling technologists was 15% and 7% for RNs (Graph 1).

Wage Growth

Except for a slight wage dip in 2015 for RNs, wages grew steadily for RNs and techologists from 2011 to 2019. Technologists realized an increase of $5.45 between 2011 and 2019, while RNs had a lower increase of $2.97. Again, we see that travelers’ wages increased the most from 2011 to 2019 with a 22% increase of $11.87 per hour (Graphs 2-4).

Wage Satisfaction

In 2017 and 2019, Springboard added questions regarding wage satisfaction. As expected, wage satisfaction correlated with wage differences by region. Wage satisfaction was highest in the West, where wages were also highest in both 2017 and 2019. Satisfaction with pay was lowest in the South (Graph 5).

Education and Experience

Education and experience matter. Those having 10+ years of experience garner the highest wages, with an 8.5% increase over those with 6 to 10 years of experience. We see the biggest hourly wage increase at almost 13% between those with 6 to 10 years of experience and those with 1 to 5 years of experience. For education, a bachelor’s degree makes a big difference. There is a 7% increase in hourly wage for those with a bachelor’s degree vs those with an ªªassociate’s degree. There was not a marked difference in salary between those with a bachelor’s and master’s degree (Graph 6).

2019 Compensation by Licensure Type

Data was collected for both compensation by skillset and region, as in past years’ surveys. In 2019, compensation was highest in the West and lowest in the South. Regarding traveler pay, the biggest difference was observed between traveler and non-traveler pay in the South. We also saw differences in pay based on skillset, where we looked at average compensation for registered nurses (RNs), certified radiologic technologists (RT[R]s, noted as “ARRT” in the corresponding bar graph), registered cardiovascular invasive specialists (RCISs) and cardiovascular technologists (CVTs) by region (Graphs 7-8).

On-Call Rates

The regional on-call rates correlate with the geographic wage findings, with the highest average on-call rate in the West and the lowest in the South. In the chart titled “On-Call Wage”, we see the same trend across all licensures in 2019, as well as 2017. Between the 2017 and 2019 surveys, there were nominal increases in each region. The Northeast saw the biggest on-call hourly wage increase of $.32, followed by the West at $.12, South at $.18, and Midwest at $.06 (Graph 9).

“Our goal in conducting this survey every other year is to provide valuable information to those in our industry,” said Hays. “We hope these survey results provide a robust picture of the wage landscape for U.S. cardiac cath, interventional radiology, and electrophysiology lab technologists and nurses. We are grateful to all of those who participated to make this survey possible.”

To download the full white paper, which includes additional details and findings, please visit:

https://info.springboardhealthcare.com/wagesurvey2018-1

About SpringBoard Healthcare

Founded in 2002, SpringBoard Healthcare is a Phoenix, Ariz.-based healthcare staffing and education company. Learn more at springboardhealthcare.com or call (866) 214-1415.