AI for Locum Providers, Part 3: Using AI Across the Locum Tenens Assignment Lifecycle
By Jonathon Ayers
As AI becomes more integrated into everyday healthcare workflows, it’s increasingly important for locum tenens providers to understand how to use it throughout an assignment lifecycle.
From AI scribes to documentation shortcuts, these tools are helping locums spend less time on administrative work and focus more on patient care. If you come into an assignment already aware of how to use these tools to your advantage, you can integrate into a new facility more seamlessly and prioritize work that truly matters.
In the third and final part of our AI guide for locum tenens providers, we’ll look at how to work with AI to prepare for a new facility, ask smarter questions from the outset, reduce friction once onsite, get more value from scribes and documentation tools, and avoid common pitfalls.
Interested in learning more?
Check out part one and part two of our AI Guide for Locum Providers.
Pre-Start Tips That Hold Up After Week 1
Orientation and getting up to speed at a new facility can eat up time and keep you away from patient care. You’re learning new systems, equipment, and workflows while working to get up to speed quickly. While you can’t rush through this important information, using AI tools to have a game plan can significantly reduce complications.
Turn Your Pre-Assignment Info Into a List of Potential Challenges
You can use AI to turn your non-PHI materials into likely stress points before you walk in. That includes recruiter notes, confirmation emails, orientation PDFs, and any facility-specific information.
What you’re looking for:
- Workflow gaps and unclear ownership
- Access dependencies (badge, EHR, VPN, dictation, paging)
- Equipment and process choke points (who fixes what, after-hours options)
- Policy landmines (call rules, supervision, consult routing, documentation expectations)
Example prompt: “Review the text below and list the top 10 likely onboarding challenge points for my first 72 hours. For each, include what could go wrong, what I should confirm at the start of an assignment, and who usually owns it. Flag anything ambiguous or missing. Use only what’s in the text. Don’t add PHI.”
Build a First-Week Plan That Matches Reality
Key resources for getting started at a new facility are often aspirational. AI can still help you convert them into a timeline, so you don’t discover basic access problems on day three.
Focus on:
- What must be done before your first day
- Day-one essentials versus week-one tasks
- A short checklist you can keep open during your first shift
Generate Better Questions
A lot of early confusion comes from one thing: you don’t know what you don’t know. AI can help you draft a concise set of operational questions tailored to your specialty and setting. As a general rule, keep them non-clinical. Aim at workflow, access, escalation, consult routing, and documentation expectations.
Example prompt: “Based on my role as a locum in a [ED/inpatient/clinic/OR] setting, draft 15 day-one operational questions I should ask to avoid preventable issues. Keep them non-clinical. Cover workflow, access, escalation paths, consult routing, documentation expectations, call rules, and who owns what. Format as a checklist I can bring to orientation.”
Using AI to Reduce Stress Once You’re Onsite
Once you’re on-site and past onboarding at a new facility, things move quickly. What seemed like clear initial impressions can be upended when you hit the ground running. AI tools can help reduce this friction and make integration into a new team seamless.
Here are a few examples to show how AI can simplify things at your new facility:
Compressing Your Early Notes Into a Simple Guide
Use AI to turn your personal notes into quick-reference cheat sheets that can be easily reviewed even in the middle of a busy shift.
Good targets:
- Phone trees and extensions
- Login steps and access troubleshooting
- Where forms live and how to route requests
- Escalation pathways for common issues
- What to do when a process fails after hours
Example prompt: “Turn my notes below into a one-page quick-reference cheat sheet I can scan mid-shift. Use clear headings and bullets. Keep it strictly to what I wrote, don’t add new steps. Include sections for phone numbers, logins/access fixes, forms and routing, and escalation pathways. Flag any missing info I should fill in later.”
Communication That’s Clear and Low-Drama
Locum life includes awkward operational moments, like missing access, unclear scope, schedule changes, handoffs, and simple administrative questions. AI can draft calm, precise messages, taking some of the effort out of writing emails.
Use it for:
- Access requests
- Schedule clarifications
- Summaries to IT or admin teams
- Recaps after meetings
Handoff Hygiene
If you move between assignments, your sign-outs can become less uniform. Use AI to standardize your end-of-shift operational handoff format and ensure consistency.
Aim for:
- Pending tasks
- Who’s waiting on who
- What’s blocked
- What you already tried
- What needs follow-up and by when
AI Scribes and Documentation Tools
Documentation is where AI shows up most clearly in routine work, and AI scribes are an increasingly common example. If your next facility uses an AI scribe, treat it like any other system: learn the rules, learn the failure modes, and verify the output.
How AI Scribes Work
At their core, AI scribes record conversations between you and your patients and synthesize them into relevant notes using AI technology. Many tools can even produce decent after-visit discharge or post-visit instructions for patients.
AI scribes are gaining popularity fast, and there is a high likelihood that they will be available at the next assignment you take. They can be a valuable resource for saving time, with one study suggesting they can reduce documentation time by 20% to 30%.
They have even been linked to reduced burnout among clinicians. However, they aren’t magic and require a small amount of upkeep on your end.
Best Practices for AI Scribe Usage
- AI scribes can turn vague language into a clear directive you or your patient never said. Always ask patients to clarify, and speak plainly when using AI scribes to give the tool a clear recording to work with.
- Stay vigilant for errors. If you notice a note that you don’t remember, verify if the information is correct before making a permanent decision.
- Audit the high-risk details every time. Before you sign, do a quick scan for meds, allergies, laterality, timing, and anything that changes the plan. If it’s wrong, fix it manually, not using the AI tool.
Quickly Verify Safety and Privacy Requirements
When onboarding at a new facility with AI scribes, your first question should be, “What are your rules around data privacy?” Important items to ask about include:
- What platform they use and how it’s configured
- How data is stored and retained
- Whether the tool is approved by compliance and legal
- What the facility expects you to verify before signing
Remember: if you can’t verify it quickly and accurately, you can’t sign it.
Where AI Falls Short and Simple Checks
When an AI tool fails, it usually falls into one of three categories:
- Overconfidence: The output looks polished but doesn’t hold up. Your job is to force the gaps into daylight. Ask the tool to surface assumptions and unknowns, then verify.
- False completeness: It gives you a neat answer that’s missing a key piece. Treat that as a signal, not a solution. Slow down and identify what you still need to confirm with the facility.
- Context collapse: The tool generalizes when your facility workflow is specific. Use a two-source rule for operational decisions that affect your schedule, access, documentation, or handoffs. Don’t let AI be your only source of truth.
If you ask an AI tool for sources, don’t accept random blogs. Use it to point you toward official policies, vendor documentation, or facility-provided materials, then verify yourself.
Conclusion
When used properly, AI can help smooth out some of the rough edges of locum tenens and reduce administrative time. While their outputs should always be verified and treated with scrutiny, they can help you integrate into new facilities more quickly and stay efficient once you’ve been there for a while.
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