Retaining walls
Welcome back to Locums Digest, Locumpedia’s free bi-weekly roundup of industry news and trends that helps locum tenens agencies and healthcare facilities make informed decisions that increase revenue.
In this edition of Locums Digest: CHG says that as competition heats up for full-time providers, healthcare organizations realize they must turn to flexible staffing models like locum tenens to attract physicians and APPs seeking work-life balance. Locum professionals are crucial in supporting permanent staff and filling staffing gaps during peak demand. By lightening workloads, they help prevent burnout and foster a healthier, more sustainable work environment—ultimately enhancing team morale and supporting long-term staff retention.
Also in Digest 82: Physician and APP job acceptance rates drop; All Star Healthcare and Floyd Lee Locums receive workplace excellence awards; Medicus highlights high-demand specialties heading into 2025; legislation tackles rural physician shortages, and so much more.
Thanks for reading!
Locums Agencies Supplement In-House Recruitment and Retention Efforts
October 16, 2024 | CHG Healthcare
Hiring physicians for permanent roles is more competitive than ever and shows no signs of getting less so. More and more, healthcare organizations are considering how they can meet job candidates’ desire for schedule flexibility and work-life balance without breaking their budget. A flexible staffing model that includes locums helps organizations offer such opportunities to staff. Understanding the challenges your hospital clients face in hiring and retaining their physicians can help a locums agency build a strong support network for their clients.
One key challenge for permanent staffing is the greater variety of types of organizations seeking to staff doctors, from telehealth to retail locations, insurance companies, and corporate clinics. Physicians have more options than ever for positions that support their work-life needs.
To stay competitive in recruitment and retention, healthcare organizations should prioritize what physicians value most: flexible schedules, a say in organizational decisions, and strong support services. Locum providers play a key role in this flexible staffing approach, helping organizations meet these goals by:
- Increasing physician availability during peak demand
- Reducing administrative workloads
- Providing essential time for physician wellness
Some staffing experts estimate organizations will need to increase their budgets in recruitment and retention by up to 30% to adequately bolster their in-house recruitment and retention of permanent staff. Contracted agencies can help by recruiting locum physicians to fill openings while a permanent search is conducted.
La Vida Locum
With Job Acceptance Rates Down, Retention Becomes Especially Important
October 17, 2024 | Hayes Locums
Physician and APP job acceptance rates are down for the first time after years of growth, complicating the turnover rates that hospitals face. Last year, physicians accepted only 71% of job offers, APPs only 82%. The 2023 annual report of the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment offers insight into the turnover trend as well as thoughts on retention. Recognizing these challenges that their hospital clients encounter enables a locums agency to develop a strong support network tailored to their needs.
High turnover rates can disrupt patient care and increase costs—for some hospitals, into the billions annually. Two of the key turnover reasons are retirement and compensation. A third of physicians report leaving medicine due to retirement. For APPs, compensation is a driving factor. Nearly a third leave a job because they feel they are being unfairly compensated; just as many choose to stay for good compensation.
In today’s climate of low job acceptance rates, hospitals must prioritize retention. Creating a more rewarding, meaningful workplace can help them retain physicians and APPs. When APPs feel heard, respected, and empowered to work at their full potential, they’re 22% less likely to leave. Offering leadership opportunities can also strengthen their engagement. Another key strategy is to tackle burnout by keeping patient and paperwork loads manageable.
By working with their hospital clients to forecast needs, plan ways to retain staff, and create a flexible staffing plan, agencies will be prepared to support permanent staff with locums who can bridge the gaps and help them feel engaged and supported.
Benefits of Hybrid Staffing Models in Rural Healthcare
October 22, 2024 | Wapiti Medical Staffing
Rural healthcare organizations, often facing limited resources and unpredictable patient volumes, are finding sustainable staffing solutions through hybrid models that blend locum tenens and per diem support with permanent staff. These models bring much-needed flexibility, especially during peak seasons, like tourism and harvest, when patient demand can skyrocket. By forecasting these high-demand periods, rural hospital leaders can coordinate with staffing agencies to ensure locum providers are ready to step in, preventing full-time staff from being overburdened.
In addition to managing fluctuating volumes, hybrid staffing supports continuity of care and helps reduce staff burnout. With locum providers as part of their workforce strategy, rural hospitals can more easily grant time off to their permanent staff without compromising patient care, which is essential for both employee satisfaction and retention.
Financially, hybrid staffing also offers a cost-effective approach. Hiring full-time staff year-round can stretch budgets thin, so by strategically filling roles with locum physicians and APPs during peak demand, rural hospitals can better manage their expenses. For these facilities, hybrid staffing isn’t just a workaround; it’s a targeted strategy that allows them to thrive within their unique constraints.
Locums Is the Fastest-Growing Healthcare Staffing Sector
October 16, 2024 | Staffing Industry Analysts
According to Staffing Industry Analysts’ (SIA) September update of their Staffing Industry Forecast, the temporary healthcare staffing industry declined 22% in 2023 and is expected to fall another 19% by the end of 2024. In contrast, locums staffing is expected to increase by 12%, making it the fastest-growing area of healthcare staffing.
The decline is attributed to several factors, many related to a resettling after the pandemic: bill rates lowering to prepandemic levels as well as a smaller pool of providers looking for temporary positions due to retirement or a return to permanent positions.
Physician and APP staffing has resisted these trends and shows resiliency. Staying abreast of trends in compensation, specialties, and settings will help agencies spot growth areas for their business. SIA publishes its Locum Tenens Market Growth Assessment annually and hosts a Healthcare Staffing Summit each November to help agencies keep up with trends.
Locum Leaders
All Star Earns Three National Culture Excellence Awards
October 18, 2024 | All Star Healthcare Solutions
All Star Healthcare Solutions was recently awarded three commendations for Top Workplaces Culture Excellence: Employee Well-Being, Professional Development, and Appreciation. These are an extension of the Top Workplaces USA awards, which All Star also received this year.
All Star began in 2003 as an agency for physicians and APPs seeking permanent positions. They added locums staffing services in 2011. Energage, a human resources technology and research company, issues the Top Workplaces national awards based on the results of an employee engagement survey measured against industry benchmarks.
Floyd Lee Locums Named Best Place to Work
October 11, 2024 | Floyd Lee Locums
For the second year in a row, Floyd Lee Locums has been named by Modern Healthcare as the #1 Best Place to Work in Healthcare. The agency differentiates itself by the benefits it offers its employees during the workday, such as desk-side yoga sessions and a personal concierge program, a unique employee benefit that provides personalized assistance with a wide range of personal tasks.
Founded in 2017 in South Carolina, Floyd Lee supports 300–450 locums providers each week. Modern Healthcare is a business news brand offering healthcare leaders information on trends and forecasts.
Industry Veteran Joins Venn Workforce Optimization
October 15, 2024 | Business Wire
Bev Colan, who has worked in healthcare staffing and workforce solutions for over 20 years, has joined Venn Workforce Optimization as company president. A subsidiary of Jackson Healthcare, Venn Workforce Optimization provides locum tenens optimization, program and supplier management, and workforce solutions technology. Previously, Colan held leadership positions at numerous companies, including AMN Healthcare and FocusOne Solutions.
Making the Rounds
Q4 2024 Healthcare Market Report: Focus on Key Specialty and Location Opportunities
October 23, 2024 | Medicus Healthcare Solutions
The Q4 2024 State of the Market healthcare report from Medicus highlights the specialties that are growing in demand and the locations that are projected to see the most significant physician deficits. Much of this expansion and contraction can be attributed to an aging population requiring complex care and the projection that more than a third of active physicians will retire over the next decade.
The following specialties are expected to increase in demand most over the next 12 years:
- Cardiology (growing 17%)
- Critical care, pulmonary, and urology (14%)
- Hematology, oncology, and hospital medicine (13%)
- NP and PA (11%)
- Gastroenterology (10%)
- General surgery (9%)
- Anesthesiology, CRNA, emergency medicine (8%)
The following states are projected to have the most significant physician deficits by 2028, according to Medicus:
- Texas
- New York
- California
- Georgia
- Missouri
- Utah
These numbers focus on the locums needs by market demands and regional variations, helping agencies prepare for requests and guide locums to where they are needed most.
Virtual Healthcare Availability Fails to Keep Up with Patient Demand
October 16, 2024 | Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
Recent research by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions found a striking disconnect between patient demand for virtual healthcare and the accessibility of those services. Customers are increasingly interested in virtual appointments, yet organizational priorities often don’t align with those needs; some health systems have reduced or eliminated their virtual offerings since the pandemic.
Of the 2,000 patients interviewed, nearly all who had had a virtual visit said they’d be willing to have another one, up from 80% in 2020. Most cited the convenience and cost of virtual appointments as their top reasons for this interest, and a significant number, nearly 25%, said they would even consider switching doctors if their current one did not offer virtual appointments. This willingness was above average in younger patients: nearly half of millennials would switch doctors to receive virtual care, and a third of Gen Z patients would. Gen X was just below the average, with around a fifth willing to switch. Only a small portion (7%) of the baby boomer generation and older said they prioritized access to virtual care in this way. More Hispanic (38%) and Black (29%) patients would switch than would white (21%) and Asian (17%) patients.
Organizations have not responded with equal interest in virtual care. Of the 51 health system executives interviewed, 51% said their organizations have increased virtual health services over the past two years. However, 2% have eliminated virtual visits, 18% are offering fewer, and 29% are offering the same as they did two years ago. They cite clinician preference and organizational and budgetary needs as their reasons for not prioritizing virtual health, with some reporting that their patients don’t want virtual services or that they haven’t asked their patients’ opinions.
The current landscape indicates a significant opportunity for patients, providers, and organizations to participate in virtual healthcare, but only if the change is aligned across stakeholders and implemented thoughtfully. Virtual approaches can be another valuable tool in holistic healthcare but are not one-size-fits-all, and each health system or organization will make its own decision about how thoroughly and quickly to adopt the technology. Additional shifts in locums telehealth can be great for physicians to explore this practice when their permanent role is with a healthcare organization that does not prioritize it.
Medical Schools and Legislation Fight Rural Physician Shortage
October 15, 2024 | Business Insider
The physician shortage—due to retirement, burnout, and increasing patient needs, among others—hits rural areas hard. These areas historically have fewer resources and are geographically isolated, so a nationwide lack of physicians only adds to their stress. Medical schools can be a possible solution for these rural communities in a couple of ways:
- Clinical rotations at rural hospitals during medical school can introduce students to working in rural settings.
- Rural residency programs can give hospitals a much-needed staff infusion while encouraging physicians to seek jobs in rural areas. Only 2% of residency training currently occurs outside urban metros. According to the Rural Medical Training Collaborative, 133 rural residencies in family medicine and 69 rural-track programs are recruiting for 2025 enrollment.
The proposed legislation listed below could, if passed, go a long way to sustaining rural healthcare:
- The Rural Residency Planning and Development Act of 2024 would permanently establish the Rural Residency Planning and Development Program, which funds the startup costs of rural residencies.
- The Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act would allow state health departments to sponsor visa waivers for foreign-born doctors who agree to practice in underserved areas.
Sponsored Content
OnCall Solutions Announces Partnership with PA Influencer Leigha Barbieri
Leigha Barbieri has been a PA in orthopedic surgery for 12 years and hosts a popular podcast, So You Want to Work in Healthcare. Her social media audience is more than 130,000 strong. And now, Barbieri is also an official ambassador for OnCall Solutions. OnCall recommends her TikTok and Instagram (@helloimthepa) and YouTube channel (@SoYouWanttoWorkinHealthcare) for healthcare trends, career opportunities, and inspiring stories.
Cancer CarePoint Joins NALTO
October 23, 2024 | Cancer CarePoint
Cancer CarePoint, which has been offering oncology staffing since 1994, has joined the National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations. This membership reinforces the agency’s ethics, transparency, and professionalism. It also empowers Cancer CarePoint to advocate for the entire locum tenens staffing industry. Agency leaders look forward to working alongside colleague organizations to shape policies and regulations that define the locums industry and help support their specific oncology staffing mission.
