Demand for primary care and behavioral health locum tenens physicians dropped in 2013, while it grew for nurse practitioners, according to a survey conducted by Staff Care, a national temporary healthcare staffing firm.
Despite the primary care demand drop, from 35.2 percent in 2012 to 28.24 percent in 2013, primary care physicians were still the most in-demand specialty for locum tenens staffing last year.
Nurse practitioners saw the largest demand increase from 2012 to 2013, as 12.35 percent of respondents reported using locum tenens NPs last year compared to just 4.8 percent in 2012.
The following are the other top four locum tenens specialties facilities reported using in 2013, with their 2012 percentages listed in parentheses.
• Behavioral health: 24.12 percent (31 percent)
• Hospitalist: 24.12 percent (18.6 percent)
• Emergency medicine: 14.71 percent (9.7 percent)
• Surgery: 14.12 percent (12.4 percent)
Survey data is based on responses from 230 hospitals, medical groups, community health centers and government health facilities.
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