Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN) The 44th Annual William Blair Growth Stock Conference summary

Company overview and technology strategy

• Focuses on tech-enabled workforce solutions, leveraging business intelligence and machine learning to address complex labor challenges in healthcare and education sectors.

• Offers a comprehensive technology stack, including the Xperience app for clinicians and Intellify for workforce management.

• Invests $20–$30 million annually in technology to maintain a high-tech, high-touch approach.

• Emphasizes seamless integration of people, processes, and technology to optimize staffing and improve patient outcomes.

• Strong financial position with no debt and over $200 million in available capital, supporting ongoing investment and M&A.

Industry trends and market analysis

• Healthcare faces a persistent nurse shortage, projected between 400,000 and 1 million by 2035, driven by retiring nurses, limited nursing school capacity, and burnout.

• The supply-demand imbalance is expected to persist long-term, with current job openings to hires ratio at 1.9:1, above pre-pandemic levels.

• Hospitals have overcorrected on contract labor, leading to understaffing and potential patient safety risks.

• Demand for travel nurses is stabilizing, with expectations for cyclical increases in the second half of the year.

• Decision-making for contract labor is shifting back from CFOs to clinical leaders as spending normalizes.

Product innovation and client solutions

• Xperience app uses AI to match clinicians with assignments, streamlining recruitment and retention while supporting clinicians with a high-touch model.

• Intellify, a proprietary vendor management system, provides real-time analytics, workforce optimization, and cost savings for healthcare clients.

• DaaS platform delivers transparent, real-time labor market data, enabling informed staffing decisions and bill rate validation.

• Technology investments have doubled the addressable market, enabling entry into vendor-neutral and VMS spaces.

• Vendor-neutral offerings are expected to capture up to $1 billion in spend under management, with high-margin, SaaS-like profitability.