USA – Prolucent Health, a US-based provider of healthcare workforce optimization software and services, has received a new US$11.5 million Series A round of funding.

The round was led by SpringTide Ventures and Health Velocity Capital with participation from UnityPoint Health Ventures.

With this funding round, SpringTide Ventures co-founder and Managing Partner Austin Walters and Health Velocity Capital Principal Grant Blevins join Prolucent Health’s Board of Directors.

The funds will be used to expand the company’s sales, marketing, and customer service teams, as well as to broaden product capabilities.

It also wants to broaden its product capabilities—the startup operates tools dedicated to meeting and managing the changing workforce needs of the healthcare industry.

The startup, which was launched in August 2020 by health tech entrepreneur Bruce Springer, aims to revolutionize the way the healthcare industry connects workers and employers. To meet workforce demands, the company employs technology, artificial intelligence, and analytics.

Prolucent Health, powered by its talent engagement platform Liquid Compass, aligns the interests of both healthcare employers and workers through an AI-driven, dynamic market for labor demand and supply.

Springer, Prolucent Health’s co-founder and CEO, stated that the startup’s investors have a track record of success that will be “invaluable” in advancing the company’s mission.

According to Springer, the investors also share the startup’s vision for smart, transparent healthcare workforce solutions that can reduce overall labor costs for healthcare systems.

Workforce challenges

While many front-line healthcare jobs are in short supply, the industry is facing unprecedented labor challenges in nursing.

According to the “2021 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report,” hospitals are experiencing extremely high nurse turnover and vacancy rates, necessitating the use of more expensive contract nurses to fill labor gaps and develop new models for engaging, recruiting, and retaining nursing talent.

The turnover rate for staff nurses increased by 2.8 percent in 2020, to 18.7 percent. According to the report, a hospital can save an average of US$3,084,000 for every 20 travel nurses that are eliminated.

For healthcare employers, the company provides technology and services that help drive large applicant volume and conversion rates for direct talent acquisition; manage contingent labor for higher quality and lower costs; manage and expand the utilization of internal flexible labor pools; and provide real time access to data for actionable decision-making, labor utilization trends, and costs.

For the healthcare worker, the solution provides a large integrated jobs marketplace for accessing available healthcare jobs, tools to manage their careers, and ease of applying for new opportunities.

Currently, more than 500,000 clinicians are registered on the Liquid Compass platform.

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