Editor’s Note
As 2026 takes shape, the locum tenens industry is entering a more deliberate phase of growth. This issue of Locums Digest focuses on how structural forces, including persistent provider shortages, financial pressure on health systems, and evolving clinician expectations, are pushing locums from a reactive solution into a planned workforce strategy.
You may also notice a shift in how Locums Digest is delivered. We’ve moved to a weekly cadence, allowing us to surface key developments more frequently and place them in a clearer context for staffing leaders and healthcare organizations navigating a rapidly changing market. The goal is to provide timely, focused coverage that reflects how industry decision-makers track trends, assess impact, and plan ahead.
In this issue, Staffing Industry Analysts’ latest market outlook points to continued demand driven by these long-term dynamics, while coverage from MPLT Healthcare and Alumni Healthcare Staffing highlights how agencies and facilities are adjusting their approach to planning, recruiting, and technology. At the same time, offerings from firms like Hayes Locums and Physician Side Gigs reflect a broader push toward tighter workforce management and greater visibility into what clinicians actually want from their careers.
Flexibility, technology, and proactive workforce design are becoming baseline expectations, not differentiators. As health systems and staffing firms navigate a stabilizing but still constrained market, the ability to plan ahead, support provider autonomy, and adapt delivery models will increasingly define success.
— The Locumpedia Editorial Team
Structural Forces Set to Reshape $9.6 Billion Locum Tenens Market
January 13 | Staffing Industry Analysts
The US locum tenens industry is being reshaped by deeper, long-term pressures across healthcare. Physician shortages, rising burnout, and tighter hospital budgets are pushing health systems to rely more consistently on flexible staffing. What was once viewed as short-term coverage is increasingly becoming a core workforce strategy, especially as organizations delay permanent hires while patient demand continues to grow.
Those pressures are reflected in market growth. The US locum tenens market reached $9.6 billion in 2025, up 5% year over year, and is projected to grow to $9.9 billion in 2026, according to SIA. Demand remains strongest in hard-to-fill specialties and is expanding beyond physicians as advanced practice providers take on a larger role in both locum and permanent staffing models. Delivery models are evolving alongside demand. Technology, MSP and VMS adoption, and upcoming telehealth policy changes are reshaping how staffing firms operate and compete.
For healthcare staffing professionals, this shift raises the bar. Success will depend on faster execution and tighter compliance, but also on building durable APP pipelines and supporting health systems through ongoing workforce instability. As locum tenens moves further into core workforce planning, the ability to operate at scale, anticipate demand, and maintain continuity will matter more than filling isolated gaps.
La Vida Locum
How Hayes Locums’ LocumScope Helps Companies Plan for 2026
January 12 | Hayes Locums
What the platform’s designed to do:
Hayes Locums is outlining how its in-house workforce management platform, LocumScope, is designed to support healthcare organizations with planning and cost visibility heading into 2026. The company points to data-driven workforce insights, clearer tracking of locum spending patterns, and minimal integration requirements as core features. The message is aimed at facilities looking to simplify workforce planning and make more informed staffing decisions without adding new systems or operational complexity.
How it can support workforce planning:
LocumScope reflects a broader trend in the locum tenens industry: staffing firms developing proprietary MSP-style platforms tied directly to their services. Because these tools are typically available only to existing clients, they function as both an operational offering and a relationship anchor. For healthcare staffing professionals, this signals that MSP capabilities, whether in-house or vendor-neutral, are becoming a more routine part of client expectations, especially as health systems look for tighter oversight, faster decision-making, and fewer disconnected staffing tools.
Locum Tenens Trends To Watch for 2026
January 8 | MPLT Healthcare
What trends are expected:
MPLT Healthcare recently outlined three locum tenens trends it expects to influence the market in 2026. The firm points to healthcare organizations taking a more proactive approach to locums, rather than relying on them only after vacancies occur. It also anticipates a growing role for APPs in locum staffing, alongside continued provider burnout that is pushing more clinicians toward locums for flexibility, geographic variety, and greater control over their schedules.
How they’ll affect staffing strategy:
These projections align with broader shifts in workforce planning across the locum tenens industry. For staffing professionals, they highlight the need to treat locums as a planned component of staffing strategy, not a contingency. That includes building stronger APP pipelines and adjusting recruiting approaches to reflect what locum providers are increasingly prioritizing in how and where they work.
Locum Leaders
- Jackson & Coker President Tim Fischer announced Art Oleszczuk as the new Vice President of Marketing.
- Helen Falkner was named the new President of Jackson Physician Search.
- SIA released its North American Staffing 100 List for 2026, which included locum tenens leaders such as Medicus’ Bob Dickey, Elite365’s Carolina Araya, and MPLT’s Liz Hale.
- Alumni Staffing celebrated its 10th anniversary.
- Elite365 officially introduced the Elite365 family of brands, including Critical Connection Inc., Proxi Dental Staffing, and Wilderness Medical Staffing.
Hire Power
Alumni Staffing Outlines 6 Staffing Trends To Watch for 2026
January 8 | Alumni Healthcare Staffing
What’s happening with the market:
Alumni Healthcare Staffing has released its 2026 outlook, framing the healthcare staffing industry as one entering a period of more measured growth rather than rapid expansion. The firm points to ongoing workforce shortages, shifting clinician expectations, and mounting financial pressure on healthcare organizations as forces that continue to shape demand. At the same time, technology is playing a larger role in how staffing is delivered, while care settings and workforce models continue to diversify.
Why it matters for staffing firms:
The outlook reinforces several realities healthcare professionals are already dealing with. Demand for flexible staffing is likely to remain strong as physician shortages persist, even as overall market growth stabilizes. Technology, including AI in operations and human resources, is becoming more central to how firms compete and scale. Just as importantly, staffing strategies are increasingly influenced by what clinicians want, pushing organizations toward more flexible, provider-friendly models across a wider range of care environments.
AI, VR, and Telehealth Are Changing How Anesthesiologists Operate (Without Replacing Them)
December 9 | LocumTenens.com
What tech is being used:
Anesthesiologists across the US are increasingly adopting technology to improve precision, efficiency, and patient outcomes. AI-driven tools are being used to flag intraoperative risks earlier, including reducing hypotension rates that can contribute to longer hospital stays. At the same time, virtual reality supports standardized training and faster onboarding, while remote patient monitoring expands care beyond the operating room, with consistently high patient satisfaction rates.
How it affects coverage and efficiency:
For healthcare staffing professionals, these tools signal a broader shift in how anesthesia services are delivered and supported. Technology is helping providers offload routine monitoring, extend coverage, and make faster, data-informed decisions, without adding to clinical burden. As expectations around efficiency, flexibility, and control over schedules continue to rise, these innovations are becoming embedded in how health systems design sustainable anesthesia coverage.
Making the Rounds
Anthropic and OpenAI’s New Healthcare Tools Bring Hope and Concern
January 15 | Healthcare IT News
What tools are being introduced:
OpenAI and Anthropic have announced AI tools designed to help healthcare organizations better use medical records and clinical data. Early adopters are already testing these systems in hospital settings, with some reporting faster access to clinical insights, including significantly reduced time spent answering routine questions from medical records.
How they could change clinical workflows:
For healthcare staffing professionals, these developments point to AI’s growing role in easing administrative friction amid sustained physician shortages. Faster access to information can support clinical efficiency and decision-making, but it also introduces new governance and liability considerations. Health leaders remain optimistic about AI’s long-term value, while emphasizing the need for clear oversight, defined guardrails, and physician involvement to ensure these tools are used appropriately and safely within clinical workflows.
What Rising Physician Attrition Rates Mean for Healthcare
January 2 | KevinMD
What the research shows:
A long-term study published in Annals of Internal Medicine found that physician attrition from clinical practice increased from 3.5% in 2013 to 4.9% in 2019, signaling a steady erosion of the active workforce even before the pandemic. The trend was most pronounced in psychiatry, primary care, and obstetrics/gynecology, specialties that already face persistent access challenges. With national projections estimating a shortage of 86,000 physicians by 2036, continued attrition adds pressure to care settings that are already difficult to staff.
Why attrition is a growing concern:
The study shows that burnout alone does not explain why physicians leave clinical practice. Researchers point to structural issues, including limited caregiving support, isolation in rural practice, and lack of control over schedules and patient volume. For healthcare staffing professionals, the findings reinforce the need for workforce models that offer greater flexibility and autonomy. Approaches that give physicians more say in how and when they practice may be critical to slowing attrition and sustaining access to care in high-need specialties.
Physician Side Gigs Launches Inside the Doctor’s Lounge Podcast
December 19 | Physician Side Gigs
What it’s about:
Physician Side Gigs has launched a new podcast, Inside the Doctor’s Lounge, hosted by Dr. Nisha Mehta. The show features conversations with physicians and industry experts who have taken nontraditional paths in medicine, covering topics such as burnout, entrepreneurship, side work, and the day-to-day realities of practicing in a more complex healthcare environment.
Why it matters for staffing leaders:
While the podcast is rooted in physician experiences, its scope extends beyond a clinical audience. Dr. Mehta positions the show as a way to bring physician perspectives into broader healthcare conversations, without reinforcing an insular echo chamber. For healthcare staffing professionals, it offers insight into how clinicians are thinking about career flexibility, sustainability, and alternative paths, perspectives that increasingly influence recruiting, retention, and workforce planning decisions.
