In January Healthcare Innovation interviewed Tiffany Chan, CEO and founder of startup Atalan, whose Clinician Retention Intelligence platform helps health systems predict and prevent surprise clinician resignations. Now the company has launched Atalan for Nursing, which is designed to help health systems strengthen nurse retention. SSM Health has been as an early collaborator in developing Atalan for Nursing.

In our January discussion Chan and Cyril Philip, vice president of digital ventures Accrete Health Partners, the venture arm of Bon Secours Mercy Health, described how they were working together on accelerating the development of a new platform module designed to bridge clinician retention and patient experience data.

SSM Health has been using Atalan’s workforce intelligence platform for physicians and advanced practice clinicians since 2023. Now, in its work with 24-hospital SSM Health, Atalan is helping to identify workforce risk up to 12 months before nurses leave, with the goal of enabling earlier intervention and supporting workforce planning, rather than asserting outcomes. SSM worked alongside Atalan to shape the platform, incorporating the perspectives of nurses and nurse leaders throughout its development.

“It’s critically important to be able to identify emerging patterns of burnout,” said Julie Winegar, R.N., B.S.N., director of workforce planning at SSM Health, in a statement. “The ability to intervene and provide support to our team members at the right time makes a meaningful difference.”

“Nurse leaders have a deep understanding of their teams; they see the strain and know where pressure is building,” added Chan in a statement. “Atalan for Nursing doesn’t replace that expertise. It strengthens it by providing data to validate nurse leaders’ instincts and support the changes they know are needed. When leaders act on that insight, the impact can be significant, improving care quality, enhancing the patient experience, strengthening workforce continuity, and protecting health system revenue.”

Atalan says it applies advanced machine learning to workforce, staffing, scheduling, operational, and clinical data to helps leaders understand where workforce challenges are emerging and what factors are driving them. The platform also provides insight into which actions are most likely to improve outcomes and measures their impact over time.

The company claims its platform delivers insights with more than 75% predictive accuracy, helping leaders identify emerging workforce challenges earlier and act with greater confidence.

As Accrete’s Philip said in the January interview, “success for Accrete means helping Atalan build a product that other health systems use as well. We're essentially a testing ground. That’s our co-development model. Eventually this will expand to Atalan’s other customers. We see that as the true metric of success, from the Accrete standpoint, is that we've co-developed a product that works well within BSMH, and that other health systems would find valuable as well.”