Case study

Three months inside one hospital system's entry-level pipeline.

A regional hospital system in northeast Indiana partnered with Wend Care to keep its entry-level patient care roles filled. Here is what the first three months produced.

The situation

Like most health systems, our partner carries a standing load of open positions — 550 to 600 across the entire organization on a typical day, spanning every department and seniority level. The hardest slice to keep filled sits at the entry level: patient care technicians, CNAs, lab support techs, and unit clerks, where turnover means the same roles reopen again and again.

The system asked Wend Care to build a continuous pipeline for a pre-approved set of those entry-level roles — without new software, without changing its application process, and without paying anything up front.

What we did

Reached

We ran ads and organic content on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube across the system's commuting area, spending our own marketing budget on their roles.

Supported

Our career counselors texted with every applicant — reformatting résumés, answering questions, and setting expectations — so interest survived long enough to become an application.

Routed into their process

Every candidate applied through the system's own job listings. Its screening, vetting, and credentialing standards applied unchanged — we fill the top of the funnel, the employer keeps full control of hiring.

The first three months

368

Applicants for pre-approved patient care roles

239

Arrived already certified (CNA, CCMA, CPT, QMA)

4–6

New applicants per day at steady state

1–3

Hires starting per week, direct to payroll

Total fees charged before those hires started work: $0.

The pipeline, in proportion

Nearly two out of three applicants arrived already holding a healthcare certification — people ready to enter the system's hiring process on day one, not prospects who might get certified someday.

Three months of applicants for one hospital systemHorizontal bar chart: 368 applicants for patient care roles, of which 239 — about 65 percent — already held healthcare certifications.Applied to pre-approved patient care roles368Already certified in healthcare (65%)239

One to three hires per week is a pipeline for the specific entry-level roles the system pre-approved — not a claim to close a 550-role gap overnight. The point of the model is that the pipeline runs continuously, and costs nothing until each hire starts work.

What it cost

No setup fee, no subscription, and no advertising charges — Wend Care funded the campaigns. The system paid a flat fee per hire, only after each person started work, at a cost per hire roughly 38% below traditional recruiting services.

Figures reflect three months of partner hiring data, northeast Indiana.

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