Most people don’t look forward to doctor visits, especially when it can involve being poked with needles or having to stay still in a giant metal tube for an MRI. As a pediatrician, Evelyn Chan saw children struggle with fear and anxiety during routine procedures, so she used virtual reality (VR) to solve the problem. Enter: Smileyscope.

The Smileyscope device, which looks like a View-Master (’90s kids will know), is strapped onto a patient’s head and leads them through various VR simulations—such as an underwater adventure introduced by a penguin—during common procedures like shots, infusions, and MRIs. The headset, meant for patients ages four and up, uses neuromodulation, helps control the way pain signals reach the brain and therefore reduces discomfort during the procedure. During the clinical-trial process, the Smileyscope team found the device reduced patient pain up to 40% and anxiety up to 60%.

Smileyscope has sold about 400 devices since launching in Australia in January 2021 and started selling in the US later that year, with hospitals paying a $3,000 annual software license fee in exchange for the device. Several American hospitals have bought the device, including Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The hospital’s child life team, which plays with sick kids while they’re hospitalized to take their minds off treatment, has two Smileyscope devices they use a handful of times each week, said team manager Shira Miller.

They’ve seen some “very dramatically positive results” in terms of patient responses, as well as a reduction in time that staff has to spend with each patient—which saves money, she said. Keep reading here.—MA

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Gig work has become a major disruptor for one of the most stable healthcare gigs: nursing. During the height of the pandemic, hospitals used what Deirdre Baggot, a former nurse who now works as a healthcare consultant at the firm Oliver Wyman, called a “shotgun approach” with hiring gig workers. Baggot explained that essentially, hospitals were hiring huge numbers of on-demand workers, sometimes more than necessary, because of the sudden massive spike in demand and inability to predict when surges would take place.

“You couldn’t really anticipate demand, so you placed a big order for gig workers, maybe more than you needed, because you were worried about…having a shortfall. And we didn’t have the level of precision that we needed,” Baggot said.

Hospitals are spending more on nursing labor: Hospitals relied on gig nursing way more post-pandemic—travel nurses worked less than 4% of all hospital nursing hours in January 2019, but more than 23% of all hours by January 2022, according to data from analytics firm Syntellis Performance Solutions cited by the trade group American Hospital Association (AHA).

Is nursing gig work in healthcare sustainable? Experts say yes, but significant changes need to take place in how hospitals utilize travel nurses.

“A lot of hospitals that are struggling now [are] not because we have travel nurses, it’s the amount of travelers that they have,” said Katie Boston-Leary, director of nursing programs for the American Nurses Association. Keep reading here.—MA

Chime in: Is your system building out an in-house staffing agency? Are there other roles that require this kind of creative problem solving? Reply to this email, or tweet us @healthcarebrew with your responses/opinions/thoughts.

Some hospitals are dangling bonuses in an attempt to juice sign-ons and hopefully convince current staff to stick around amid growing concerns of clinical burnout and worker shortages. At HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest health system, registered nurses are eligible for a new-hire signing bonus of up to $30,000 if they join its Asheville, North Carolina-based Mission Health for two years. The same cash-up-front deals apply to other roles at Mission Health too, from surgical techs ($15,000) to respiratory therapists ($10,000).

Detroit-based Henry Ford Health is matching its initial sign-on bonus with a $7,500 retention bonus for nurses who stay for 18 months, and offering a bonus of up to $5,000 more for those who work a night shift for 18 months. But that kind of cheddar is still a shred of the top cheese’s haul.

CEOs at hospitals that make about $175 million annually—in the middle of the pack—saw median bonuses of 20.8%, or $120,000, during the pandemic, said Tom Bailey, principal and senior consultant at Total Compensation Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in executive compensation. Samuel Hazen, the CEO of HCA Healthcare, got a $4.5 million bonus in 2021—150x the maximum RN sign-on bonus.—MS

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Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: Nearly 17,000 American cancer patients died from Covid-19 complications in the first 10 months of the pandemic. (US News & World Report)

Quote: “I have never seen anything like it in my life. I’m seeing more male and female patients, from every age group, every working profession. It’s really been across the board.”—Michele Green, a New York City-based dermatologist who specializes in hair loss, on the surge of people losing hair after Covid infections (the New York Times)

Read: Because President Joe Biden isn’t likely to loosen federal restrictions on cannabis, the courts are likely to shape the multi-billion industry, which could derail diversity and public health efforts within the industry in the process. (Politico)