All AI, all the time.
Welcome to Locums CME, Locumpedia’s bi-weekly news roundup that helps physicians and APPs maximize their locum tenens lifestyle.
Our lead story: The 2025 HIMSS conference is approaching, and people are buzzing about industry-changing tech. During the March 4 Panel, “Physicians’ Burnout: Is AI the Only Path Forward?”, experts will discuss combining high-tech and low-tech solutions to improve work balance and patient outcomes. The most employable physicians are those with demonstrated curiosity about and familiarity with technology. Locum tenens is an easy way to get on-the-job experience with the tech that will shape the future of healthcare.
Also in this edition of Locums CME: Healthcare opportunities like telehealth are driving locums growth, locums is helping new doctors to expand their skills, and 10 practices to stay passionate about your healthcare career. Plus, we tackle why HBO’s “The Pitt” is generating so much acclaim among healthcare professionals.
Continue your locums education with Locums CME 50 below.
Tech-Savvy Physicians Crucial at HIMSS 25, Exploring AI to Tackle Healthcare Challenges
January 10, 2025 | Healthcare IT News
January 24, 2025 | Healthcare IT News
With technology’s role in healthcare expanding, the most employable physicians are those with demonstrated curiosity about and familiarity with technology. Locums assignments help providers develop those skills, offering new experiences with different EHRs and other facility-specific resources. Workshops and conferences also provide great learning opportunities, including HIMSS 25, this year’s Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference, March 3–6 in Las Vegas. It promises diverse educational and networking opportunities, including continuing education credits for physicians interested in healthcare technology.
In “Physicians’ Burnout: Is AI the Only Path Forward?” (March 4, 10:15 a.m.), panelists will discuss how a multifaceted approach—combining high-tech and low-tech interventions — is key to reducing burnout.
Voice recognition AI and large language models (such as ChatGPT) can take the lead on routine and time-intensive tasks, allowing physicians and APPs more time to focus on patient care. They can participate in patient interactions to:
- Generate and summarize notes
- Create after-visit summaries
- Draft orders
Low-tech interventions are foundational to the successful integration of high-tech, including a workplace culture that promotes:
- Workflow optimization
- Strong communication within and across teams
- Reduction of unnecessary tasks
The panelists on “From Academic Medical Centers to Rural Healthcare: Operationalizing Responsible AI” (March 4, 2:00 p.m.) will focus on innovating across the urban-rural divide. Compared to their urban counterparts, people living in rural areas are more likely to have complex or chronic conditions, are less likely to have access to regular care, and have a 20% higher death rate. Technology can help, if the following happens:
- Rural providers and healthcare leaders are included in national discussions of healthcare technology standards.
- All communities have access to modern, comprehensive, and maintained IT systems, including sufficient funding.
- AI is trained and tested with validated and representative data from rural populations.
Numerous continuing education credits are available throughout the conference.
Healthcare Opportunities Drive Locums Growth
January 6, 2025 | VISTA Staffing
As we settle into the new year, understanding the trends driving locum growth projections is key to positioning yourself for career success.
Opportunity 1: High-tech for Patient-Centered Healthcare, Enhanced Diagnostics, and More Efficient Administration
- Telehealth visits may increase by a third, improving access for 26 million Americans.
- Algorithms are becoming increasingly able to predict health risks and suggest treatment plans. In certain areas, AI diagnostics are nearly 100% accurate.
- AI appointment scheduling could save providers up to 20 hours of administrative work a week.
Opportunity 2: Regulatory and Policy Shifts
- Regulatory changes in the scope of practice for NPs, PAs, and CRNAs will continue to expand, providing more ways to increase access to care.
- Medicare and Medicaid will come to a crossroads as older Americans become more than a fifth of the population.
- As digital use increases, cybersecurity risk will continue to grow. More than a third of providers report breaches each year.
- Insurance companies will improve their preventative care models to lower long-term healthcare costs.
Opportunity 3: Changing Workforce Dynamics
- Hybrid staffing models, which rely heavily on locum providers, are becoming the norm as healthcare facilities address burnout, the ongoing provider shortage, and an aging population.
- Locum physicians and APPs in all specialties are needed to fill open roles in traditional and emerging healthcare settings such as retail clinics, urgent care centers, and insurance companies.
- New telehealth options can help physicians reach populations previously unable to access their specialties.
- Healthcare providers can expand their resumes with continuing education in telehealth, AI integration, and data analytics.
Locums Offers New Docs a Great First-Job Option
January 24, 2025 | MDStaffers
Many physicians newly out of residency or fellowship are just beginning to determine what they’re looking for in a hospital or other setting, where in the country they’d like to call home, and even which patient population they believe they can most significantly impact. By exploring locums early in their careers, physicians can meet facilities’ workforce needs while strengthening their skills and exploring their location options.
- Explore different practice settings. From urban teaching hospitals to rural clinics and across different practice styles, patient populations, team dynamics, and communities—locum assignments offer new physicians insights into how to further their professional and personal objectives.
- Hone and expand skills. Working on various cases and with physicians in different specialties helps those new to the career sharpen their skills and round out their knowledge and experience.
- Earn competitive compensation. Locum salaries can exceed those for permanent roles, which is significant for starting to pay down school debt and save for the future.
- Enjoy work-life balance. For physicians concluding a hectic, nonstop educational program, knowing that a break of their chosen length is coming at the end of every locums assignment can be invaluable for their mental health and meeting their personal goals.
- Expand professional networks. Building relationships across the country and specialties can lead to opportunities throughout a locums professional’s career.
- Develop independence and adaptability. A locums physician quickly strengthens their organizational and communication skills as they coordinate with their staffing agency and new team. With each new assignment, they learn new EMR systems and facility protocols. The confidence and problem-solving skills that grow from this will carry along any career path.
Locums Agencies Rated Among Staffing’s Best
February 4, 2025 | GlobeNewswire
ClearlyRated’s 2025 Best of Staffing Award is only the provider-driven staffing award in the US and Canada. Healthcare providers, facilities, and agency staff were asked to rate their staffing agency on the quality of the service they provide their locum physicians and APPs. The following were among those who made the grade for the 2025 Best of Staffing Talent—and most are repeat honorees, indicating they have built a sustainable locums-first culture:
- Accountable Healthcare
- All Star Healthcare Solutions
- Caliber Healthcare Solutions
- CompHealth
- Consilium Staffing
- Cross Country Locums
- Interim Physicians
- Jackson and Coker
- LocumTenens.com
- Medicus Healthcare Solutions
- Medstaff National Medical Staffing
- MPLT Healthcare
- VISTA Staffing Solutions
- Weatherby Healthcare
- Wilderness Medical Staffing
According to other data gathered by ClearlyRated, locums placed by these agencies experience 60% more satisfaction.
Tech-Savvy Locums in High Demand
January 31, 2025 | MASC Medical
Rapid technology integration in healthcare means locum physicians and APPs with tech expertise will be more employable. Consider the following to help you succeed in your next locums assignment:
- Pursue continuing education and certification in AI, robotics, and data security.
- Enhance your resume with what you’ve learned on assignment about different EHR systems.
- Strengthen your communication skills for remote consultations.
- Improve your proficiency with virtual care platforms.
You can also focus on telehealth assignments. Before the pandemic, telehealth visits accounted for less than half a percent of all medical appointments. Today, they’re around 25%.
Agency Celebrates 30 Years in Locums Staffing
January 30, 2025 | LocumTenens.com
In honor of its milestone 30th anniversary, LocumTenens.com shares 30 interesting facts about the company. Here are six (because a more standard five just wouldn’t be enough!):
- They place locums in more than 60 specialties, drawing from a pool of nearly 700,000 physicians and APPs, covering approximately 1 million shifts annually.
- They encourage their associates to give back to the community through their At Your Service program and back up those individual efforts with company-level donations. In 2024, they will focus on organizations that improve healthcare access and work with at-risk youth and families.
- The Jackson Healthcare campus, where LocumTenens.com is headquartered, was modeled after the Colosseum in Rome.
- Their locums fill some of the most pressing medical gaps, such as in maternal care “deserts.” LocumTenens.com OB/GYNs and APPs deliver approximately 5,000 babies per year.
- They’ve built more than 2,000 telehealth programs in partnership with their clients.
- More than 150 of their 800 associates have been with the company for at least 10 years, with a dozen working there for more than 20 years.
Physician Wellness Retreat
Burnout Linked to Lack of Control Over Work Environment
January 31, 2025 | Neurology Advisor
According to findings published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, control over the work environment is key to reducing physician burnout. The factors that were independently associated with burnout and wanting to leave the job included physicians’ lack of perceived or actual control over:
- Caseload
- Clinical schedule
- Who else is on the team
Agencies are practiced in understanding each facility’s culture and how the staff perceives locums, so speak with a recruiter to understand these specific elements of the assignment you are considering. It’s helpful to remember that you may be coming in to help alleviate schedule and workload challenges, and there may be hesitation from permanent staff in having you join the team. Asking about caseload, schedule, and team makeup in your facility interview can demonstrate your desire to work well with the new team.
10 Practices to Maintain Passion and Well-Being in Your Healthcare Career
February 3, 2025 | All Medical Personnel
Staying passionate about your career requires regular maintenance. Consider some of the following practices to help you tend to your body, mind, and spirit every day.
- Reconnect with why you entered healthcare. Write down or talk out loud with someone else about concrete, meaningful moments at work.
- Put yourself first. Everyone who has flown knows that in an emergency, you’re supposed to put on your oxygen mask first—an alive you is the only you who can help someone else. Schedule your exercise, meal plans, sleep, mindfulness, and other meaningful self-care so that you do those things.
- Continue learning. Being curious about your field can help you engage and feel excited to go to work, even on difficult days. Read journals and attend workshops and conferences.
- Build community. Join colleagues in online forums. Attend in-person meet-ups hosted by professional organizations. Seek a mentor or a mentee.
- Explore new work options in healthcare. Seek cross-training opportunities or temporary assignments, such as locum tenens.
- Celebrate. Save patient thank-you notes. Keep a record of positive outcomes.
- Be a changemaker. Taking action can improve your health. Join a committee or task force that advocates for physicians or patients.
- Be thankful. Shift your mindset to the positive by writing down three events, people, or outcomes for which you are grateful daily.
- Seek support. Contact your Employee Assistance Program or a physician and APP well-being therapist.
- Remember the forest. Most of your day is spent focused on individual trees: each patient, procedure, bit of facility tech, or new policy. Connect to the bigger picture—ideas include volunteering for community health initiatives or mentorship programs—to help you remember the impact your work is having in ways not always immediately apparent.
Art Imitating Life
January 23, 2025 | Variety
The first 10 episodes of The Pitt, a new show on Max (previously HBO), portray a single 10-hour shift in a fictional Pittsburgh trauma hospital. Critics and audiences are lauding it for its realistic portrayal of emergency medicine. Research-driven, the show is under the guidance of several physician consultants, and the writers have not shied away from sharing “exactly what it’s like,” as many viewers who work in emergency medicine have noted. While the showrunners want to craft an entertaining story, they say they just as much want to educate the public on the problematic demands that are placed on physicians under the current system, as well as the joys and successes, and what their needs are related to resources, policies, and compensation. Other workplace television shows have encouraged young viewers to pursue degrees in the portrayed careers—perhaps The Pitt will help usher in a new wave of medical students and healthcare advocates.
Creativity and a Beginner’s Mindset Drive Success for Locum Physicians
January 30, 2025 | KevinMD.com
Being creative and having a beginner’s mindset are two approaches many of the most successful physicians employ. These allow them to hear the messages behind their patients’ words, consider multiple possibilities, and pivot and stay nimble in an ever-changing industry. Locums physicians practice creativity and demonstrate a beginner’s mindset with every new assignment. Each new workplace offers a reboot of sorts, allowing them to approach a career they may have held for decades with fresh eyes and heart—and a renewed passion and commitment for patient care.
Doctor’s Notes
Beyond Medicine: Essential Skills Physicians and APPs Need
January 31, 2025 | Medix
Success as a physician or APP is no longer just about demonstrating your best medical expertise. Rapid technological advancements in automation and AI, shifting economic priorities that emphasize remote and hybrid workforces, and global events that require human-to-human response mean employers seek well-rounded, nimble, and collaborative team members.
In addition to your strengths in diagnostic and treatment, the skills that will continue to be most in demand include the following:
- Critical thinking
- Practice decision-making that involves evaluating multiple perspectives.
- Analyze real-world scenarios and generate actionable solutions.
- Adaptability
- Seek projects that will require you to work outside your wheelhouse
- Practice mindfulness
- Seek mentorship or join professional networks
- Digital savviness
- Stay current with industry-specific technology
- Become proficient with efficiency hacks, like using macros in spreadsheets
- Read about emerging technologies
- Collaboration
- Participate in projects that involve cross-functional collaboration
- Sign up to present or teach
- Creativity
- Brainstorm
- Pursue hobbies that hone your imagination or focus on skills entirely outside what you do at work
- Study structured methods for generating or refining innovative ideas
AI Revolutionizing Healthcare: Boosting Efficiency and Reducing Burnout
February 1, 2025 | South Florida Hospital News
AI plays a transformative role in the healthcare sector by streamlining time-consuming tasks, allowing physicians to focus on patient care and improving job satisfaction. Facilities that have been using AI for a few years are now showing that certain technology-led efforts are having concrete positive effects.
- Recording and transcribing a physician’s notes in real time: These notes are detailed and accurate and reduce a doctor’s after-hours work.
- Responding to certain messages: This allows physicians to focus on complex communication while ensuring every patient request is met with a timely response.
- Monitoring and reporting patient symptoms: Wearable medical devices can monitor health conditions, seamlessly report them to the physician, and set up follow-up appointments.
AI Cuts Therapist Documentation Time from Hours to Minutes
January 27, 2025 | Healthcare IT News
Completing case notes can take up to a quarter of a therapist’s work hours. Ambient AI, which transcribes patient appointments in real time, has been found to reduce that time to minutes in some cases.
Because Ambient AI works in the background without requiring commands, it is unobtrusive. A text version of the conversation between therapist and patient appears on the computer as the appointment is happening and can even be immediately organized into a designated template or outline. If the therapist and patient want to review something, they can do so during the appointment. Later, the therapist can use their clinical judgment and knowledge of the patient to add to or otherwise modify the transcription.
Therapist involvement is key to the successful implementation of AI. Steps to be taken include:
- Therapist support of the tool’s adoption
- Therapist input into customization
- Training for therapists and other staff
- Education for patients
- Compliance with federal, state, industry, and facility regulations and policies around AI usage in healthcare settings
- Data collection and analysis for ongoing evaluation of the tool
Sponsored Content
OnCall Solutions’ Locums Tax Guide
December 2024 | OnCall Solutions
OnCall Solutions’ guide to filing taxes is helpful to locums physicians and APPs alike. It offers:
Tax Tips
- Pay quarterly
- Include self-employment tax (employee and employer portions of Social Security and Medicare)
- Strategize for retirement
State Tax Guidance
- Pay attention to residency rules when you work in multiple states
- Know if your state(s) do or don’t have income tax
Deduction Optimization
- Educate yourself in the range of deductions available to help minimize tax liability
Overall, take charge of your taxes—and that may mean enlisting the help of a professional familiar with healthcare providers and locum tenens. Taxes can be complex, and a professional can help you navigate this year and plan for the future.
Financial Resilience: Locums Oncologists Play a Big Role
February 10, 2025 | Cancer CarePoint
Medicare reimbursement rates declined for the fifth consecutive year, with oncology seeing an even more significant cut than the baseline this year. Challenges may stem from payment cuts or any other changes, and they can all cause disruptions or delays in patient care, particularly troubling in oncology.
Oncology leaders can prepare for this with a forward-thinking staffing and resource management approach.
- Leverage locum tenens. Locums radiation and medical oncologists offer an adaptable, cost-effective way to prevent coverage gaps, ensure continuity of care, reduce feelings of burnout among permanent staff, and avoid last-minute staffing crises.
- Expand APP scope. Locums APPs and those on staff can manage routine assessments and follow-ups, oversee treatment, and manage symptoms—and in the process, make space for physicians to focus on complex cases. In many states, APPs can work partially or fully independently.
- Optimize with technology. AI-driven tools can improve scheduling accuracy, find patterns in patient volume trends, and automate administrative tasks. This reduces the time oncologists spend on paperwork and allows them to focus on their patients.
- Expand telehealth. Follow-ups and symptom management can often be handled virtually. For some geographically remote facilities, a broader use of telehealth appointments can transform patient access.
For a complex and time-sensitive field like oncology, a facility’s ability to maintain consistent patient care underscores and affects everything, including finances. Locums medical and radiation oncologists and APPs are crucial to the care of oncology patients in facilities nationwide.
