How does locums coverage benefit my facility?
In the 30 years since its inception, locum tenens has become an important coverage solution to reduce patient migration, decrease work loads for full-time physicians, and improve the profitability of healthcare facilities.
Benefit #1: Locum Tenens Coverage Keeps Your Patients & Staff Happy
Coverage gaps create undue pressure on physicians and patients, and could, in the long-run, increase patient migration and affect physician retention. Locum Tenens as a coverage solution affects the care and morale of your patients and staff.
In a 2006 survey by the Society of Hospital Medicine, hospital many of the challenges hospital administrators face relate to the career satisfaction of their medical staff. The survey respondents noted the following top three issues as their highest priorities:
- Work hours / work life balance 42%
- Recruitment 35%
- Daily Work Load 29%
Overworked providers can be a threat to retention and patient migration. Many factors have an effect on your current staff, including:
- Relocation
- Change in career
- Patient load increases
- Illness
- Maternity leave
- Vacation leave
- Retirement
- CME
The strategic use of locum tenens during these coverage gaps can ease the pressure on your medical staff as well as your patients.
Benefit #2: Investing in Locum Tenens Coverage Improves Profitability
At first glance, locum tenens coverage may appear considerably more expensive than the cost of a permanent physician. However, when you account for a permanent physician’s cost for benefits, bonuses, tax liabilities and malpractice, the investment for a locums physician is actually similar.
Consider the following example for Hospitalist coverage:
Annual Cost Comparison for Hospitalist Coverage
Permanent Hospitalist Locum Tenens Hospitalist
Annual Compensation $180,000* $217,000**
Sign-On Bonus $17,000 ---
Medical Malpractice $20,000 ---
Benefits Package $24,000 ---
Advertising/Interview $8,500 ---
Tax Liabilities $10,000 ---
Travel $1,500 $6,000
Housing $300 $15,000
Car Rental $200 $8,000
Total Investment $262,000 $246,000
* Based on 7 on, 7 off schedule for six months per year (12 hour days)
** Based on 5 on, 2 off schedule for 6 months per year (12 hour days) with travel home each month
Since locum physicians are revenue generators, your facility can continue providing profitable services, even during times that would otherwise be gaps in coverage.
Benefit #3: Locum Tenens Providers are More Qualified
Locum Tenens physicians are qualified and re-qualified more frequently than physicians in long-term practice, and have broader range of experience in different practice settings.
Before consideration for a locums assignment, each physician must be pre-qualified by each locum tenens firm they wish to work with. Since most locums physicians work with up to three or four firms at a time, they must go through the qualification process several times. These comprehensive evaluations include practice history, skills checklists, malpractice history and personal reference checks relating to the candidate’s competence and integrity. Potential problems typically show themselves during this initial processing period. If the physician is qualified through the firm, the same information is supplied to the client facility and the candidate is re-qualified through that facility’s own credentialing process for each new assignment.
Locum Tenens physicians are routinely qualified and re-qualified at each client facility in which they practice. They are experienced in working in new environments, developing new relationships with staff and patients, keeping up pace with the patient load the previous physician handled, training on new equipment, working odd hours and difficult call schedules, and maintaining a high level of professionalism.
Without the administrative responsibilities associated with running a practice, locum tenens physicians are able to focus on practicing medicine and providing quality care.