A Glow-Up for NALTO
Welcome to Locums Digest, Locumpedia’s free bi-weekly roundup of industry news and trends that helps locum tenens agencies and healthcare facilities make informed business decisions.
In this edition of Locums Digest: An improved web presence for NALTO gives the association the gravitas it’s earned as the leading advocate for the fastest-growing sector in healthcare staffing. The site features a sleek new interface and a bevy of enhanced tools and resources for agencies and vendor members, including an events calendar, an expanded resource center, and an upgraded member directory.
Also, in Digest 84: Locums execs make the Global Power 150 Women in Staffing list, Weatherby’s new president gears up for an expansion, and Jackson Healthcare’s Shane Jackson earns a spot as an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. Meanwhile, AMN Healthcare reports a 26% surge in locums revenue, and Cross Country’s physician staffing business grows by 10%.
Agencies Benefit from Expanded NALTO Website
November 14, 2024 | NALTO
NALTO, the leading advocate for the locum tenens industry, has launched a newly redesigned website with enhanced functionality and an intuitive user experience to better serve its members and the broader locum community. The updated site introduces a variety of new tools and features:
- Events Calendar: Stay informed about upcoming conferences, webinars, and industry gatherings.
- Video Library: Enjoy the new YouTube Channel and easy access to a video library of educational materials and event highlights, all linked prominently from the new website.
- News: Receive even more locum tenens updates and deeper industry insights.
- Member Directory: Easily network with trusted locum tenens organizations nationwide.
- LinkedIn Social Feed: Engage in real-time with dynamic conversations showcased directly on NALTO’s page.
These improvements help streamline access to critical resources while fostering connectivity and engagement across the locum tenens community. The site is live, and NALTO members and visitors are welcome to explore.
La Vida Locum
Four Future-Forward Healthcare Strategies
November 21, 2024 | LocumTenens.com
By understanding some of the best paths forward in healthcare optimization, agencies can meet their facility clients where they are and help guide them forward. These approaches prioritize innovation, resource optimization, and proactive talent management:
- Leverage telehealth: Most healthcare facilities report having some telehealth options, and almost half of those are seeing a positive impact on patient wait times. This technology also offers flexibility to clinicians and staffing management.
- Optimize APPs: All signs point to increased use of PAs, NPs, and other APPs. Most healthcare leaders plan to continue to add these roles to their rosters. APPs help combat physician burnout and allow facilities to serve more patients by independently handling cases and expanding their hours and locations.
- Focus on retention: This begins with quality onboarding and training and continues through open communication, support systems, and opportunities to advance skills.
- Keep recruiting: Recruitment is no longer just about finding new talent but also about innovating how talent is discovered and engaged. By leveraging predictive analytics and hybrid staffing models, agencies can identify and fill staffing gaps more effectively and comprehensively, ensuring a strategic and adaptable workforce approach.
Rural Health Day Keeps the Focus on Healthcare in Remote Locations
November 20, 2024 | Hayes Locums
The locum tenens community steps up for improved rural healthcare not just on National Rural Health Day, which was November 21 of this year, but every day.
With 65% of rural communities short on physicians, people living in those areas die at a younger age from preventable causes than those in urban areas. Locums offers a reliable source of skilled physicians in all fields who can help bridge those gaps. This can include working in telehealth, which offers patients greater accessibility and specialty care.
Other ways to support rural healthcare include building new residency programs in those areas and supporting Medicare payment reform. Those are not overnight solutions, nor are they ones that locum tenens agencies can directly affect, but they are essential to keep in mind as everyone works for better healthcare for all.
Locums NP Earns Top Award
November 13, 2024 | Barton Associates
Sophia Khawly, a family practice NP, has been named Barton Associates’ first Locum Tenens Nurse Practitioner of the Year.
Khawly calls Miami, Florida, home, but for the past nine years, has been a locum provider focusing on diverse and geriatric patients in rural areas across the country. She also runs TravelingNP.com, a blog about working locums in which she shares financial, lifestyle, and other advice with seasoned professionals and those new to locums.
The Barton honor includes a monetary award for the winner as well as for a charity of their choice; Khawly has chosen Haiti’s Children, a medical organization that she volunteers for and sits on the board of.
Locum Leaders
Global Power 150 Women in Staffing List Announced
November 12, 2024 | Staffing Industry Analysts
Staffing Industry Analysts’ 2024 Global Power 150 Women in Staffing list has been announced. This year’s executives are honored for their use of cutting-edge technology, including AI, to streamline processes, accelerate growth, and enhance client and candidate experiences. They are also recognized for developing more inclusive talent pipelines and vital DE&I initiatives. As much as they focus on scaling faster and optimizing delivery, they are known for supporting work environments that put individuals first, building employee engagement and well-being.
Those who work in locums include:
- Anne Anderson, Executive VP, Jackson + Coker Locum Tenens, a part of Jackson Healthcare
- Susan Ball, Executive VP, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, Cross Country
- Melissa Byington, CEO, Quest Locum Tenens, Syncx
- Danielle Doyle, CEO, Access Healthcare
- Emmy Drouillard, Executive VP, Epic Staffing Group
- Janet Elkin, CEO, IMN Enterprises
- Chrystal Fugett, Executive VP, Recruitment, Aya Healthcare
- Cary Grace, President and CEO, AMN Healthcare
- Liz Hale, CEO, MPLT Healthcare
- April Hansen, Group President of Workforce Solutions, Aya Healthcare
- Katie Kuhl, VP of Talent Strategy, Barton Associates
- Donita Ross, Associate Chief Nurse Officer; VP, Health Carousel International, Health Carousel
- Jenn Schultheis, Senior VP of Growth, Floyd Lee Locums
- Leslie Snavely, President and CEO, CHG Healthcare
- Leora Westbrook, President, AMN Healthcare
Locums Leader Named an Entrepreneur of the Year
November 20, 2024 | Metro Atlanta CEO
Shane Jackson, president of Jackson Healthcare, was recently named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 National finalist. In June, Jackson was selected as a Southeast regional award winner in the Family Business category and joined more than 200 other regional winners in competition for the national honor.
Entrepreneur Of The Year has recognized leaders for their transformative ideas for nearly four decades. Jackson is known in the healthcare industry for his efforts to improve workplace culture. This includes being the founding vice chair of goBeyondProfit and writing two books, Fostering Culture: A Leader’s Guide to Purposely Shaping Culture and, forthcoming in January, This Is the Thing: About Life, Joy, and Owning Your Purpose.
Weatherby Names New President as Past President is Promoted to CHG
November 19, 2024 | CHG Healthcare
Michael DePaolis has been promoted from Weatherby Healthcare’s vice president of sales to president. The outgoing president, Luke Woodyard, will become group president with parent company CHG Healthcare, the country’s largest physician staffing agency.
DePaolis has been with Weatherby since 2007. As president, he will lead the locums agency as it relocates to Raleigh, North Carolina. This expansion from the company’s previous home in Durham is estimated to produce more than 150 new jobs and have an economic statewide impact of more than $430 million.
Woodyard joined CHG’s network in 2009 as a vice president at CompHealth staffing agency and moved to Weatherby in 2016. In his new role, he will oversee Weatherby and CompHealth’s permanent staffing work. He will also have a leadership role in CHG’s strategic clinician initiatives.
AMN Locums Revenue Shows Significant Growth Amid Shrinking Nursing Results
November 7, 2024 | AMN Healthcare Services
AMN Healthcare Services reported a 19% decrease in the third quarter year-over-year and a 7% decrease from this year’s second quarter, bringing in $688 million. This was better than projected, and company leadership credits improvements in the sales pipeline, MSP net wins, and internal fill rates. AMN also reduced its debt by $60 million during Q3.
There were notable gains in some areas. Physician and leadership solutions continued to beat 2023’s numbers, up 13%, as did locum tenens revenue, which came in at 26% higher year-over-year, that growth still fueled mainly by the MSDR acquisition.
AMN forecasts the fourth quarter to be 14% to 16% lower than the previous year, though physician and leadership solutions revenue is projected to grow by 3%. Nurse and allied solutions revenue is expected to decrease by up to 24% year over year, and technology and workforce solutions revenue is anticipated to fall by 9%.
Demand Rose While Revenue Met Projections at Cross Country
November 6, 2024 | Staffing Industry Analysts
Cross Country Healthcare reported an expected 29% decrease in revenue year-over-year in the third quarter to just over $315 million. That is at the high end of what was projected, and leadership says demand for their services remains high. For example, physician staffing rose 10%.
Total days filled also increased to more than 24,400 over last year’s 23,000 in the third quarter. Nurse and allied staffing revenue fell 33%, as did average field contract personnel on a full-time equivalent basis, down from nearly 9,900 last year to 7,700 this year.
Hire Power
Podcast Offers Actionable Strategies for Amplifying Generosity
November 18, 2024 | Jackson Healthcare
Season two of Jackson Healthcare’s Generosity at Work podcast launched on November 13. The season’s five episodes are released weekly. It is hosted by Keith Jennings, the company’s vice president of community impact.
Season one discussed why generosity in the workplace matters, and season two shared practical ways to integrate generosity into any work environment. This year’s guests include a philanthropy expert, a researcher studying company volunteerism, and David Newell, known as the character Mr. McFeely from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Strategic Staffing Models Are Key to Workforce Stability
November 20, 2024 | Medicus Healthcare Solutions
During the 12th Annual Becker’s CEO + CFO Roundtable, healthcare leaders discussed ideas for maintaining healthcare workforce stability. They recommended scalable staffing models that incorporate a variety of provider roles and interim staffing partnerships.
Locum tenens is a crucial part of both. Agencies can support facilities in acting on early indicators of workforce instability by being ready with various skilled locums physicians, PAs, NPs, and other APPs.
Making the Rounds
Navigating Healthcare Staffing Challenges and Consolidation
November 13, 2024 | Staffing Industry Analysts
Healthcare staffing faces a critical inflection point as leaders address the misalignment between bill rates and clinician pay expectations alongside a looming wave of industry consolidation. Insights from the Healthcare Staffing Summit, held on Nov. 7, 2024, highlighted a few trends shaping the sector.
Bill rates remain a challenge, especially in travel nursing, where clinicians increasingly question the benefits of current pay structures. While some healthcare systems are open to paying higher rates for specialty roles, broader increases hinge on sustained financial recovery within these systems.
Rising operational costs, such as nonbillable hours and cancellation policies, have also hindered profitability. This financial pressure, coupled with declining margins, is accelerating merger and acquisition activity. Recruiters are also adapting to post-pandemic realities. The rapid growth of 2021 and 2022 created unrealistic expectations for new recruiters, who are now relearning skills necessary for a more stable market. Meanwhile, experienced recruiters and newer hires are thriving, with Gen Z showing promising potential in the field.
Medical Groups Might Consider Rethinking Operations
November 12, 2024 | TechTarget
New data highlights the financial strain medical groups face as physician compensation now accounts for 84% of total expenses. The median investment per employed physician has surpassed $300,000, a level deemed unsustainable under current employment models. Although provider revenue has risen by 3% year-over-year, physicians are working more while generating less revenue, creating a misalignment that pressures health systems to reassess their operational strategies.
Increased inpatient revenue and longer average lengths of stay were identified as significant factors driving costs. These trends point to a growing volume of high-acuity patients, requiring hospitals to monitor and manage expenses carefully. While financial margins for hospitals and health systems show stability, slim operating margins and rising labor expenses underscore the urgency for strategic adjustments.
Training and Direct Experience with AI Drive More Accurate Physician Utilization
November 15, 2024 | Medical Economics
A recent study by University of Virginia Health found that using ChatGPT Plus did not notably improve the accuracy of doctors’ diagnoses when compared to the use of older methods such as UpToDate and Google.
However, on its own, ChatGPT Plus outperformed all the physicians, regardless of which method they used. The researchers said that this does not mean that AI should replace physicians but that physicians must be better trained and have more opportunities to experience the technology to make use of its capabilities.
Sponsored Content
5 Reasons Why a Specialized Oncology Staffing Firm Presents Better Opportunities to Locum Tenens Oncology Providers
November 20, 2024 | Cancer CarePoint
Locum tenens oncology providers work in a highly specialized field with complex challenges and wide-ranging opportunities. An oncology-focused agency such as Cancer CarePoint can help you identify the best placements to prioritize your career growth alongside your patients’ unique outcomes.
- Just as your patients need a specialist, you can benefit from specialized staffing expertise. Your partners there will help you navigate protocols and certifications and support you with everything from technical expertise to emotional resilience.
- Cancer CarePoint maintains close relationships with oncology-focused facilities. This helps you find the best placement.
- Service tailored just to you means no stone is left unturned. Your expert representative can spot coveted oncology roles that general agencies may not know to look for.
- Cancer CarePoint is proactive and strategic. They forecast facility needs to quickly spot staffing gaps to fill and to ensure seamless transitions.
- Working with a specialist means you have someone in your corner for the long run. Oncology-focused recruiters understand the long-term goals possible in your field and help you reach them.
Cancer CarePoint has been placing locums oncology physicians and APPs for 30 years, offering thoughtful solutions for the provider and the patient alike.
