A bumper crop of agency insights & inspiration
Welcome back to Locums Digest, our bi-weekly roundup of industry news and trends that helps locums agencies make informed decisions.
In this edition of Locums Digest, a recent report from Medicus Healthcare Solutions highlights the growing healthcare access crisis in underserved areas. The Q3 Healthcare Market Report revealed that more than 46% of US counties lacked access to a local cardiologist—a figure that soars to 86% in rural areas. The report noted the severity of these staffing shortages has led execs to prioritize provider placement above their cost concerns.
Also: Locum tenens provides a creative solution for industrial sites; emergency medicine salaries have jumped 8% over the last two years; Jackson Healthcare named a ‘Great Place to Work’ for the eighth consecutive year; AMN Healthcare reports 17% growth in locum tenens; OnCall Solutions appoints Michael Skovira as president; and All Star and Barton give special recognition to providers during Locum Tenens Week, and more.
Thanks for reading!
Q3 2024 Healthcare Market Report: Growing Cardiology Gaps and Hospital Focus on Staffing Needs Create Locums Opportunities
August 1, 2024 | Medicus Healthcare Solutions
The Q3 2024 Healthcare Market Report from Medicus Healthcare Solutions highlights two new elements of the physician shortage that should be of interest to the locum tenens industry: One, there is a widening gap in access to cardiology care, and two, hospital leaders have indicated they are prioritizing physician placement over cost concerns.
More than 46% of all US counties do not have a local cardiologist. For rural counties, it’s almost double, with more than 86% of them not having immediate physical access to a cardiologist. Access to care plays a significant role in an area’s cardiovascular risk index, and locum tenens offers a solution.
To retain physicians of all kinds, hospital leaders are focused on new and improved retention strategies, including incorporating locums providers. Only 29% of administrators say they are concerned about the associated costs of locum tenens as long as the gaps are filled and their team has job satisfaction.
Overall, the report indicates that there is more room for locums in many hospital systems’ recruitment practices, and this can help address current market demands, regional variations, and evolving physician preferences.
La Vida Locum
Boosting Safety and Efficiency: The Impact of Locums at Remote Industrial Sites
August 7, 2024 | Wilderness Medical Staffing
Industrial sites such as mines, oil rigs, and fishing vessels have a high risk of workplace injury because of their challenging conditions and remote, isolated locations. The cost of these all-too-common issues to both employees and employers is high, and the availability of permanent healthcare staff is low.
Locum tenens offer a creative solution for quality on-site healthcare, providing immediate care for many injuries or illnesses and stabilizing and overseeing transport for more serious ones. Their work not only improves health outcomes and safety as well as productivity and efficiency but also takes some pressure off small nearby clinics. Connecting with nontraditional healthcare settings can open new doors for locum tenens agencies.
Key Locums Onboarding Insights from Day Zero to Week One
July 26, 2024 | LocumTenens.com
Insights from the Physician and Clinician Onboarding Research Report supports robust onboarding of locums providers.
- Before the first day: 85% of surveyed clinicians emphasized receiving detailed instructions well before their start date helped them feel set up for success.
- On the first day: Over 75% expect a successful first day to entail a comprehensive overview of expectations and processes.
- During the first week: Clinicians who responded to the survey said they highly value ongoing introductions, social events to encourage connections, and regular check-ins.
Agencies can participate in this process by guiding their facility clients through locum expectations and onboarding best practices.
Locums Opportunities Make Emergency Medicine Even More Attractive
August 13, 2024 | Weatherby Healthcare
Medscape’s 2024 Emergency Medicine Physician Salary Report indicates growth in financial benefits for emergency medicine physicians. Some of that is attributed to physicians incorporating locum tenens opportunities, which respondents noted has also increased their job satisfaction.
The average emergency medicine physician salary jumped 8% from 2022 to 2024, while the compensation growth for US physicians overall was 3%. More than half of responding physicians increased their take-home pay by supplementing their primary job with additional work; 16% of those boosted their income with medical moonlighting or locums.
Over half of emergency medicine physicians (52%) feel they’re being paid fairly. Interestingly, most don’t see salary as their biggest perk—only a small fraction (12%) said they’re in it for the money.
Consistent with that, those who take locums assignments say they do so for more reasons than just the extra income. They list experiencing workplace variety; focusing on patients, particularly those who may not otherwise have access to quality care; and avoiding bureaucracy as nonfinancial reasons to incorporate locums assignments into their schedule.
Winning Locums Recruiters: How Deliverability, Quality, and Support Can Set Your Agency Apart
August 1, 2024 | CompHealth
Facility recruiters may work with two or three agencies to recruit locums providers. Agencies can position themselves, their physicians, and other APPs as attractive to these clients by focusing on three primary factors: deliverability, quality, and support.
- Deliverability: Prepare details on your submission’s placements over the past year, including the number of assignments, where they were placed, and their record. If an agency struggles to provide recent placement data or takes too long to respond, it may indicate a lack of experience or reliability—red flags that shouldn’t be ignored.
- Quality: Exemplify quality service by being responsive to and proactive with recruiter requests. Be able to explain how you successfully handle problems with locums and assignments. A strong relationship with an agency ensures they won’t send untested or marginal candidates, helping to mitigate these risks.
- Support: Share details of the credentialing and licensing support you provide to locums clinicians that relieve the facility of these burdens. Recruiters want partners in administrative tasks. Effective locum partners reduce the administrative burden by offering robust credentialing and licensing assistance.
Cost is also important to recruiters, but most say that deliverability, quality, and support matter more. Cost can easily be negotiated if those three are present to satisfy all parties.
Locum Leaders
Locums Staffing Agency Named Great Place To Work Eighth Year in a Row
August 5, 2024 | Jackson Healthcare
Jackson Healthcare earned the Great Place To Work signature certification for the eighth consecutive year. This honor is based on employee responses to the Great Place To Work Trust Index Survey, which measures and evaluates experiences across five workplace elements: credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and sense of belonging. Great Place To Work research finds that certified businesses are 15 times more likely to be picked by job seekers and have employee retention twice as high as those who do not have this certification.
Locum Tenens Growth Was Part of Agency’s Strong Q2
August 8, 2024 | AMN Healthcare
In the second quarter of 2024, AMN Healthcare saw significant performance in its locum tenens division.
- Revenue: AMN’s locums business experienced 17% growth year over year, contributing substantially to overall revenue.
- Demand: There was a notable increase in demand for locums services, driven by healthcare facilities expanding temporary staffing needs.
- Operational Success: This segment of the business benefited from a strong pipeline of opportunities and effective placement strategies, noticeably from the acquisition of MSDR in late 2023, which is now demonstrating its precise role in AMN Healthcare’s operations.
Overall, the locums segment demonstrated robust performance and growth, reflecting its integral role in the company’s broader success.
Michael Skovira, a 20-year Healthcare Veteran, Takes Helm as Staffing Agency President
August 2024 | OnCall Solutions
Michael Skovira, MBA, MPAS, PA-C, is the new president of OnCall Solutions. A 20-year veteran of the healthcare industry on both the clinician and the staffing executive sides, Skovira is recognized as an industry thought leader. He has been featured with Becker’s, the Healthcare Innovation Congress, the SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit, the AAPA Executive Leadership Conference, and the ACHE/AAPA Leadership Learning Collaborative, among others. Skovira focuses on innovative and reliable solutions to retention and engagement issues.
Locums Physician Earns Industry Award for Going Above and Beyond
August 12, 2024 | PR Newswire
Gastroenterologist Gitanjali Vidyarthi, MD, has been awarded the All Star Cares Award by All Star Healthcare Solutions. Vidyarthi works for the Veterans Affairs healthcare system and added part-time locums work to her schedule starting in 2021. This recognition honors Vidyarthi’s exceptional healthcare contributions and her dedication to improving patient care. The award highlights her commitment to both her patients and the broader medical community.
Locums Dentist Named an Industry Hero
August 15, 2024 | Barton Associates
Dr. Christine Rizkalla, a dentist, has been named Barton Associates’ 2024 Locum Hero in honor of her impactful locums career. Rizkalla’s first post-residency position was as a locums dentist in Pennsylvania. She later became a private practice dentist in New York and New Jersey, but after eight years, she felt the calling to return to locums work full-time. Rizkalla emphasizes that her role has allowed her to make significant contributions to diverse healthcare settings, including enhancing patient care and tackling the challenges of temporary staffing. Her story underscores the vital role of locums professionals in the healthcare system.
Hire Power
New Toolkit Simplifies Best Practices for Telehealth Locum Providers
August 6, 2024 | CHG Healthcare
Over half of Americans have used telehealth services, with most preferring them over in-person visits. For physicians, telehealth presents a unique opportunity to explore locum tenens work. According to CHG Healthcare’s 2022 Locum Tenens Awareness and Perception Survey, 70% of physicians expressed interest in taking on telehealth locum shifts or being on call alongside their full-time roles. Additionally, 30% showed interest in pursuing full-time telehealth locum assignments.
CHG Healthcare has created a toolkit with this in mind, helping healthcare admins and staffing agencies better navigate the latest telehealth rules, regulations, and best practices, including telehealth issues as they relate to locums, such as:
- State Licensing: Locum physicians must hold valid licenses in both their state of residence and any state where the patient resides when providing telehealth services.
- Credentialing: Physicians must undergo credentialing processes for telehealth services, which can differ from traditional in-person roles. For example, credentialing by proxy allows a remote hospital to credential those who will never work in person at that hospital. Agencies often help with both licensing and credentialing.
- Malpractice insurance: Agencies or individual physicians are responsible for this coverage while working locums.
- Technology: Facilities typically provide locum tenens providers with the technology and training needed to serve telehealth patients successfully.
Understanding these regulations is crucial for locum agencies to effectively support and place telehealth professionals, ensuring compliance and successful integration into the telehealth landscape.
Physician Shortages at Community Health Centers Worsen as Patient Rosters Lengthen
August 2024 | msn.com
Community health centers offer opportunities for locums to make a real difference in patients’ medical care at a local level. They are the single source of care for a growing population disenfranchised by severe financial distress—health centers served a 60-year historic record number of patients in 2023.
Despite their importance, these health centers face significant challenges in finding permanent staff. Nearly half (49%) are dealing with shortages of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other APPs—a jump from 39% in 2018.
The situation is even more dire for primary care physicians and mental health professionals. With 70% of health centers now reporting staff shortages, locum tenens support has become essential to ease the burden in these health centers. For many patients at community health centers, options for quality medical care are limited, making the immediate attention that locums provide essential.
Making the Rounds
Rural Maternity Crisis: 55% of Hospitals Lack Services, Locums Offer Immediate Relief
August 8, 2024 | MedCity News
There is a severe maternity care crisis in rural America, where 55% of hospitals do not offer labor and delivery services. Even before these obstetrics closures, the maternal mortality rate in the country’s most isolated counties was over 60% higher than the rate in urban counties. Without local services, the issue will only grow more dire.
Locum physicians and advance practice providers can offer immediate relief and support, helping to maintain or even improve maternal care in underserved rural areas. While systemic challenges continue to need focus, funding locums offers short-term relief.
Executives Critique Overused Terms in Healthcare: ‘Workforce Crisis,’ ‘Provider,’ and ‘Burnout’
August 8, 2024 | Becker’s Hospital Review
In a recent informal survey by Becker’s Hospital Review, healthcare executives identified certain terms they find problematic and overused. Here are three terms frequently mentioned in discussions about locums, along with reasons why some executives might prefer not to hear them in their next meeting:
- Workforce crisis: This is used too often, conversations dwell on the problem, and the crisis, and not on how to act on it.
- Provider: Physicians, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare professionals worked hard for their degrees, and they agree that they want to be known by their titles.
- Burnout: This term has become too much of a catch-all, diluting its meaning and the effect burnout has on the healthcare industry.
Choosing our words carefully not only fosters respect for physicians, NPs, PAs, and other APPs, but also helps pave the way for more productive and solution-driven conversations between leadership and physicians and clinicians.
Leveraging Gen Z Values: Flexibility and Inclusivity to Boost Workplace Culture and Talent Retention
August 6, 2024 | Becker’s Hospital Review
We learn from generations that came before us, and we can also take inspiration from younger generations. Gen Z, born during the late 1990s through the early 2010s, are entering the workforce and can bring valuable perspectives to your agency. This generation values flexibility, inclusivity, and work-life balance. Healthcare leadership may be interested in adopting these values to foster a more dynamic workplace culture and to help attract and retain young talent, which benefits patient care.
