A majority of health facilities, like hospitals, medical groups, community health centers and government health facilities, use at least one locum tenens physician per month, according to the "2013 Survey of Temporary Physician Staffing Trends" conducted by Staff Care, an AMN Healthcare company.
The physician shortage seems to be driving the use of locum tenens physicians, since many facilities use locum tenens providers to maintain services while they seek to fill an open position.
The following are the top five reasons facilities typically use locum tenens physicians:
1. To fill in for staff who have left: 58 percent
2. To fill in until a permanent physician is found: 57 percent
3. Vacation/continuing medical education: 36 percent
4. To fill in during peak usage times: 13 percent
5. To meet rising patient demand: 10 percent
Other choices that received less than 10 percent of responses included using locum tenens physicians to maintain flexibility to upsize or downsize staff as needed, to maintain services while transitioning to physician employment, to maintain services during electronic medical records training, to reduce readmissions/medical errors, to test market a new service or to ensure quality-based reimbursement.
Survey data is based on 205 survey responses. Respondents could check all responses that applied.
More Articles on Locum Tenens Physicians:
What Physician Specialties are in Greatest Demand for Locum Tenens?
How Has the Rise of Physician Employment Changed Hospitals' Recruitment Strategies?
Using Locum Tenens to Lower Physician Attrition Rates