Editor’s Note
Physician participation in locum tenens has climbed past 171,700 clinicians, or roughly 17% of the entire US physician population, while employment continues to consolidate into fewer, larger organizations. At the same time, rural hospital closures and shrinking inpatient services are narrowing the margin many facilities have for handling an unforeseen vacancy. Together, these trends are changing how healthcare organizations approach coverage.
Planning ahead gives facilities more options. Those that budget for locum tenens coverage months in advance give agencies more time to source, credential, and match clinicians for fit rather than availability alone. Advanced practice providers are also becoming a more deliberate part of workforce strategy, with geography and specialty continuing to shape how they’re used.
These shifts are playing out as facilities face evolving technology, costs, and patient needs. Organizations that prepare for change are better positioned to maintain coverage. This edition of Locums Digest looks at how facilities and staffing firms are building more flexibility into the way they plan and deploy their workforces.
– The Locumpedia Editorial Team
Lead Story
Healthcare Market Report | Q3 2026
August 5, 2026 | Medicus Healthcare Solutions
Medicus’ Q3 2026 Healthcare Market Report shows more than 171,700 doctors are working or have worked locum tenens as of July 2026, either alongside a permanent role or as a standalone career. That works out to roughly 17% of all US physicians, a share too large to treat as a niche career path any longer. Employment patterns are consolidating at the same time, with hospitals and corporate entities together employing 82% of doctors nationwide.
The operating landscape is tightening too, with more than 100 rural hospitals closing over the past decade and leaving more than 4 million residents farther from emergency, inpatient, and other hospital services. Another 53 hospitals have eliminated inpatient care since the beginning of 2023 to qualify for the Rural Emergency Hospital designation, shifting more patients into regional systems. Those closures concentrate pressure on the clinical teams and facilities left standing, many of which are already stretched thin.
A locum tenens pool this size carries real weight for sourcing strategy, assignment design, and compensation planning. Growing advanced practice capacity gives healthcare leaders more ways to build teams around coverage and consistency instead of replacing every vacancy one-for-one. Together, these shifts point to a staffing environment where keeping pace with demand depends on responsiveness as well as headcount.
La Vida Locum
Healthcare Workforce Planning with Locum Tenens
July 30, 2026 | Jackson and Coker Locum Tenens
Locum tenens works differently when it’s budgeted into workforce planning ahead of time instead of brought in only after a schedule breaks. Over the past 12 months, 88% of hospitals, medical groups, and other healthcare facilities have taken that approach, folding locum tenens into their staffing plans specifically to address shortages. Used this way, it helps organizations close coverage gaps, support clinician well-being, and maintain access to care during periods of change.
Agencies benefit from the shift too. With more lead time, recruiters can source clinicians, complete licensing and credentialing, and consider fit rather than relying primarily on availability. Employers avoid the tradeoff between waiting on a permanent hire and asking an already overburdened medical staff to cover the gap, since the cost and purpose of locum coverage are established before demand peaks.
Preparing for Fall: What Healthcare Facilities Should Be Doing Now to Address Staffing Gaps
July 30, 2026 | IPL Health Staffing
Fall staffing problems often start well before the season begins. Rising patient volumes, respiratory illness, vacations, leaves, and workforce transitions can converge as summer ends, which makes early planning more valuable than waiting until September. Recommended preparation includes keeping permanent recruiting pipelines active year-round, using succession planning to flag high-risk roles, and turning to locum tenens to cover gaps without overloading full-time staff.
An earlier request widens the clinician bench and allows more time for licensing, reducing the likelihood that facilities must choose from whoever happens to be available at the last minute. Staffing firms also gain time to coordinate sourcing, screening, credentialing, and candidate communication before a service problem emerges. Healthcare employers that know which vacancies carry the most operational risk can prioritize temporary coverage accordingly, protecting schedules without asking permanent teams to take on every surge or absence.
What Makes a Locum Tenens Assignment Attractive to Providers?
August 4, 2026 | ConnectHealth
Pay can get a clinician’s attention, but a vague assignment can lose it. Providers evaluating locum tenens opportunities also want exact schedules, realistic patient volumes, and clear support expectations. A family medicine assignment described as Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., no call, and 16 patients per day gives candidates something concrete to evaluate, unlike an ambiguous “flexible schedule.”
The level of detail in an assignment is something agencies and facilities can control, not a set cost like pay. Physicians and APPs are often comparing several openings at once, so slow replies or missing information give them an easy reason to look elsewhere. Well-defined expectations also reduce issues after booking, since clinicians arrive already knowing the workload, support structure, and site requirements. Upfront specificity shortens back-and-forth and makes repeat coverage easier to secure.
Locum Leaders
- NALTO announced the 10th anniversary of National Locum Tenens Week as the RURAL Healthcare Act, which would classify locum tenens clinicians as independent contractors under federal labor law, became the first federal locum tenens classification bill to clear a US House committee.
- Elite365 appointed Carolina Araya Chief Executive Officer, succeeding founder Tracy Clark, who moves into the role of Executive Chairman as the company builds out its first MSP program.
- VeloSource named Adam Rousey Chief Operations Officer, adding more than 25 years of experience across MSP, VMS, and locum tenens operations to lead the company’s staffing and technology execution.
Hire Power
Healthcare’s Productivity Crisis Won’t Be Solved by AI Alone: McKinsey
August 4, 2026 | Becker’s Hospital Review
McKinsey makes the case that clinical organizations need rebuilt operating models that combine human judgment with AI-enabled work. Revenue cycle redesign using agentic AI could produce productivity gains of up to 40%, while redesigned shared services could improve productivity by 25% to 50%. Partial automation, however, won’t materially change the underlying cost structure without corresponding changes in roles, skills, and workflows.
Workforce design now outranks staffing levels as the bigger management question. Healthcare employers adopting AI may need different staffing models even when patient demand stays high, while agencies will have to track which clinical and operational skills stay scarce as routine work shifts. Locum tenens can give organizations coverage flexibility while new workflows, roles, and productivity expectations are being established.
How Healthcare Facilities Are Institutionalizing Advanced Practice Workforce Strategy
August 3, 2026 | CHG Healthcare
A survey of 327 healthcare leaders found that 92% consider advanced practice providers very or extremely important to workforce strategy, up from 89% a year earlier, and 96% plan to maintain or increase utilization in 2026. Expansion is moderating rather than reversing, with 51% projecting higher usage this year, down from 62%, while 45% expect to hold steady, up from 33%. Just 1% plan a reduction. Healthcare organizations also reported positive results across patient access, throughput, quality, cost, and organizational growth.
Locum use splits sharply along geographic lines, and urban facilities are leaning in, with 23% planning to increase it in 2026 and just 12% aiming to cut it. Rural facilities are pulling back instead, with only 4% expecting an increase, 25% anticipating reductions, and 38% reporting no APP locum use at all. Geography, cost, and onboarding burden are driving that split, and staffing firms will need market-specific strategies instead of treating demand for these providers as one uniform national picture.
Making the Rounds
Ongoing Physician Well-Being Work Isn’t About Checking Boxes
August 4, 2026 | American Medical Association
Jefferson Health is treating clinician well-being as an operating responsibility rather than a one-time program. Its approach combines mental health resources and peer support with cross-departmental collaboration spanning HR, finance, communications, operations, and quality improvement. Leaders also want well-being discussed alongside other measures of organizational health, with frontline physicians involved in identifying problems and building action plans.
Coverage gaps, unpredictable workloads, system integration, and breakdowns in trust can all shape provider experience, recruitment, and retention. Temporary staffing can’t resolve structural well-being problems, but planned locum tenens coverage can reduce the need to push every absence or vacancy onto employed physicians. Staffing companies also have a stake in that experience after placement, since workload clarity, coordination, onboarding, and site support all determine whether clinicians finish assignments successfully and want to return.
US Healthcare Affordability Hits a Five-Year Low
August 4, 2026 | Medical Economics
Fewer than half of US adults can consistently afford the healthcare and medications they need. The West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index puts that share at 49%, the lowest point since tracking began five years ago. Financial pressure is especially pronounced among patients managing chronic and mental health conditions, while rising healthcare spending, climbing hospital prices, and the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies are adding to the squeeze.
Hospitals and practices must balance labor costs against access, throughput, service continuity, and increasingly price-sensitive patients. That raises the stakes around unfilled shifts and closed capacity, since labor decisions can determine whether care is available locally and on time. Facilities will weigh temporary staffing expense against the risk of leaving roles vacant, and agencies offering coverage should expect closer scrutiny of cost and utilization as a result.
Physical AI in Healthcare: Setting the Stage for Effective and Efficient Use
August 5, 2026 | Healthcare IT News
Hospitals exploring physical AI are focused on where machines can reliably remove work without taking clinical judgment away from providers. Experts from Northwell Health, NVIDIA, and Expper Technologies see the most near-term potential in logistics, monitoring, procedural support, and carefully bounded physical tasks. They also call for human takeover safeguards, lifecycle monitoring, and multidisciplinary governance before these systems move into routine care.
Healthcare organizations are being advised to identify where clinicians are stretched, patients are waiting, and expertise is scarce before selecting a technology. This capacity-first approach carries a direct implication for locum tenens planning, since automation may reshape individual tasks long before it reduces the need for clinical coverage. Facilities will still need physicians and other providers to maintain services while these systems are tested, integrated, and governed. Staffing firms should expect job requirements and workflow expectations to evolve alongside those deployments, especially at health systems adopting these tools early.
