Editor’s Note
Increasing burnout and physician attrition rates brought workforce instability into focus last year, but in 2026, it’s clear that staffing challenges run deeper. Physician shortages, specialty access gaps, and tighter regulatory expectations are turning staffing into a structural issue that affects compliance, capacity, and long-term planning.
This issue of Locums Digest examines how those pressures are showing up early in the year. Medicus’ Q1 Healthcare Market Report projects a physician shortage of more than 96,000 and steady locum tenens growth in 2026. At the same time, physicians are relatively optimistic about AI as a tool to increase efficiency and reduce workloads, but they still have concerns about its implementation. While all specialties are affected by physician shortages, cardiology is projected to be one of the most in-demandin 2026.
In the rest of this issue, we examine how shortages of anesthesia specialties are intensifying access risks. Meanwhile, evolving labor law and AI guidance are reshaping how organizations design staffing models. Together, these stories reflect a shift away from short-term fixes toward more intentional workforce design, with locum tenens playing a central role.
– The Locumpedia Editorial Team
The Story of the Q1 Healthcare Market So Far
January 30 | Medicus Staffing Solutions
Medicus recently released its Q1 2026 Healthcare Market Report, projecting a US physician shortfall of more than 96,000 full-time equivalent physicians this year, with shortages varying sharply by specialty and region. Demand is rising fastest in high-acuity and procedural specialties, while supply constraints continue to lengthen vacancies and increase coverage risk for health systems.
Against that backdrop, locum tenens remains one of the most resilient segments in healthcare staffing. Medicus expects 4% growth in locum tenens utilization through 2026 as organizations rely on interim physicians and advanced practitioners to maintain patient access to care. This demand is especially visible in ambulatory surgery centers, where CMS policy continues to favor outpatient care but staffing shortages threaten throughput and scheduling reliability.
The report also highlights pipeline and technology trends shaping workforce strategy. New graduate medical education data shows most resident physicians are concentrated in specialty training, limiting flexibility in some markets. At the same time, physicians express cautious optimism about AI, viewing it as a tool to reduce administrative burden rather than replace clinical judgment. Together, these forces point to sustained demand for flexible staffing and proactive workforce planning throughout 2026.
La Vida Locum
Important 2026 Healthcare Staffing Regulatory Changes
January 28 | Annashae Healthcare Staffing + Consulting
New 2026 regulatory changes are elevating staffing from an operational concern to a measurable quality and compliance standard. CMS is repealing federal minimum staffing thresholds for long-term care facilities, shifting the focus from fixed numbers to documented, data-driven justification for staffing decisions.
Hospitals will need stronger staffing documentation, clearer links between acuity and coverage, and reliable data systems that support audits and surveys. With fewer numeric mandates and more outcome-based scrutiny, regulators are signaling that how staffing decisions are justified matters as much as who’s on the schedule. Proactive planning, including strategic use of locum tenens, will be key to maintaining compliance, accreditation readiness, and care continuity in 2026.
Why Flexible Labor Is Becoming a Core Workforce Strategy
February 3 | Cross Country
Flexible labor is becoming increasingly integrated into healthcare organizations’ long-term staffing plans. In its 2026 Healthcare Workforce Outlook, Cross Country shows nearly half of healthcare leaders plan to expand their use of contingent labor, reflecting a shift toward designing flexibility into workforce models. Persistent burnout, retention challenges, scheduling inefficiencies, and ongoing labor-cost pressures have made traditional, headcount-based staffing less viable in a volatile care environment.
Healthcare leaders are increasingly staffing for variability instead of averages. This is leading to flexible labor being integrated alongside workforce analytics and internal float pools to improve responsiveness, reduce overtime, and limit turnover. Used proactively, flexibility supports cost discipline and care continuity by aligning staffing with real-time demand. Organizations that treat flexible labor as a strategic design tool, rather than a reactive fix, are better positioned to manage uncertainty and build long-term workforce resilience.
The Impact of the Cardiology Workforce Shortage
February 4 | Hayes Locums
Cardiology demand is rising as chronic heart disease rates climb and the population ages, but supply is moving in the opposite direction. Less than half of US counties have a practicing cardiologist, and more than 86% of rural counties have none. Training barriers, burnout, administrative burden, and a shift toward subspecialization are shrinking the pool of general cardiologists just as demand for early detection and ongoing management increases.
Shortages are hitting preventive care hardest. Wait times for general cardiology visits have risen more than 25% since 2017, delaying diagnosis and contributing to higher mortality, including rising heart failure deaths among younger adults. Locum tenens cardiologists are emerging as a critical bridge, especially in rural and critical access settings, helping restore access, catch disease earlier, and stabilize care delivery where permanent coverage remains out of reach.
Locum Leaders
- The best of the best locum tenens staffing firms earn their spot on ClearlyRated’s Best of Staffing List 2026.
- Jackson Healthcare founder Rick Jackson launches bid for Georgia governor.
- Locumpedia announces its five Locum Tenens Providers of the Year for 2025.
- Optigy acquires TempMD, a locum tenens staffing firm based in Memphis, Tennessee.
- AMN earns a spot on the Modern Healthcare 2025 list, Best in Business for Recruiting and Staffing.
- SIA opens applications for its 2026 Largest and Fastest-Growing Staffing Company Rankings and Opportunity lists, with a deadline of February 20, 2026, for North American companies.
Hire Power
The Anesthesia Workforce Shortage Demystified
January 23 | Becker’s ASC Review
Anesthesia staffing constraints are being driven by converging pressures in 2026: an aging workforce, rising surgical demand, widespread burnout, and declining reimbursement. Nearly 60% of anesthesiologists are 55 or older, burnout rates approach 50%, and both physician and CRNA pipelines are struggling to keep pace. At the same time, Medicare and commercial reimbursement cuts, payer denials, and No Surprises Act disputes are squeezing margins, making it harder for hospitals to compete on compensation.
Facilities are increasingly experimenting with new models, including CRNA-only teams, flexible employment tracks, and AI-driven scheduling. Without structural changes, leaders warn that shortages will first disrupt access and widen equity gaps. Anesthesia staffing is becoming a strategic challenge requiring more flexible, data-informed workforce models.
Pivotal Healthcare Labor and Employment Law Issues Carry Into 2026
January 29 | National Law Review
Healthcare employers entered 2026 facing continued pressure from legal and labor issues. In 2025, heightened HIPAA enforcement, expanding state AI and health data laws, wage disputes, and worker misclassification cases increased legal exposure across the industry. Staffing constraints, visa fee increases, and tighter limits on noncompete agreements further strained workforce stability.
States are taking a more active role in regulating the industry as federal guidance remains fragmented. Employers should expect increased scrutiny of AI-driven employment decisions, meal and rest-period compliance, the use of staffing agencies, and worker safety protocols. Healthcare organizations will need closer coordination between workforce planning teams to manage regulatory risk while maintaining adequate staffing and operational continuity.
Making the Rounds
Multifactorial Drivers of the US Physician Shortage
January 25 | KevinMD
Despite growth in medical school enrollment and residency slots, the physician supply continues to shrink. This data-driven analysis shows the shortage is driven by structural factors rather than a single bottleneck. An aging population is rapidly increasing demand, while longer training pathways delay entry into practice. At the same time, board-certification output has stagnated in key specialties, physician careers are shortening due to burnout and employment pressures, and inflation-adjusted reimbursement has fallen sharply.
Headcount alone no longer reflects workforce capacity. Reduced clinical hours, earlier retirement, and economic disincentives are constraining full-time supply even as total physician numbers rise. Expanding graduate medical education won’t be sufficient on its own. Addressing structural issues will be essential to stabilizing physician access in the coming decades.
Why Autonomous AI Is Failing, and Hybrid Models Are Winning
February 4 | HIT Consultant
Healthcare leaders are increasingly skeptical that autonomous AI can deliver real clinical value. Nearly all generative AI initiatives stall at the pilot stage, largely due to concerns about accuracy and data misinterpretation. Professional groups, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians, emphasize that AI should augment clinicians. Surveys show that leaders view AI as risky in high-stakes environments and favor models that require expert human validation.
Hybrid intelligence is emerging as the more effective model. Evidence shows that diagnostic accuracy improves most when humans and AI work together, particularly in data-intensive workflows such as documentation, registries, and clinical abstraction. AI delivers the greatest impact when embedded into workflows as a force multiplier, not as a standalone decision-maker.
CEOs Push Physician Well-Being From Perk to Performance Goal
February 3 | American Medical Association
Health system CEOs are reframing physician well-being as a core performance metric. Leaders from Henry Ford Health, Jefferson Health, and Rush argue that burnout directly affects access, quality, revenue, and retention. With physician turnover costing systems hundreds of thousands of dollars per clinician, well-being is increasingly tracked, budgeted, and managed alongside safety and operational outcomes.
Health systems are moving beyond individual resilience programs toward measuring organizational drivers of burnout. CEOs emphasized leadership accountability, data-driven measurement, and redesigning onboarding and daily work to reduce friction. As shortages persist and younger physicians demand balance and purpose, treating well-being as a strategic imperative is becoming essential to sustaining long-term system performance.
