Editor’s Note
Workforce shortages have never respected specialty boundaries, and this edition of Locums Digest reflects how widely the pressure has spread. Primary care, oncology, gastroenterology, and a dozen surgical specialties are all feeling it, and the pipeline data suggests the next decade won’t offer much relief. The organizations holding steady tend to be the ones that made deliberate decisions about coverage before the gaps became urgent.
Both short- and long-term locum tenens use are proving their value in ways that go beyond plugging holes. Reduced overtime, lower recruitment costs, and the ability to evaluate clinical and cultural fit before committing to a permanent hire are all part of the picture. Done well, it changes how facilities budget, plan, and measure staffing performance.
Technology is reshaping what clinicians walk into when they take an assignment, and health systems are being asked to move faster than most large organizations are built to move. Governance, clear vision, and leaders who understand the tools firsthand are separating those who are ready from those who are reacting. The stories in this issue are meant to help you stay on the right side of that line.
– The Locumpedia Editorial Team
Lead Story
Rural Healthcare Workforce Shortages Are a Public Health Crisis. It’s Time We Treated Them That Way
May 28, 2026 | Barton Associates
When a rural community loses even one primary care physician, the effects reach well beyond the clinic. Travel times stretch, appointments get pushed, and nearby EDs absorb patient volume they were never designed to handle. The access problem has become widespread, with 43 million Americans living in areas with insufficient options and 92% of rural counties designated as primary care workforce shortage areas.
Staffing here is a leadership and operating model issue as much as it’s an HR one. When replacement pipelines are thin, every vacancy lands harder, and workload redistribution becomes the default response. Federally qualified health centers serve as the main entry point for care in many rural communities, with HRSA-funded centers now reaching more than 32 million patients annually, including nearly one in five residents.
Coverage in remote and underserved areas demands faster ramp times, steadier rotations, and realistic scope planning for small teams, whether the work goes to a locum tenens agency or a health system thinking long-term. Time-to-fill is only one piece of the picture. Prolonged vacancies reshape service lines, referral patterns, and patient trust in ways that are difficult to walk back once they take hold.
La Vida Locum
Why Flexible Staffing Models Are Becoming Permanent in Healthcare
May 27, 2026 | MPLT Healthcare
Physicians and advanced practice providers are prioritizing schedule control, geographic options, career variety, and reduced administrative burden when making career decisions. That shift is compelling healthcare organizations to rethink how they structure coverage, moving flexible staffing from a reactive measure toward an established part of workforce planning. The older view of locums as a strictly short-term solution for emergencies is fading as organizations fold it into longer-term operational strategy.
Beyond filling unexpected gaps, locum tenens is being used to maintain continuity during recruitment transitions, manage seasonal demand swings, and reduce strain on permanent staff. Health systems that treat it as a standing resource rather than a last resort may find it easier to hold coverage steady when needs evolve. It’s a mindset that changes how assignments get scoped, budgeted, and measured.
Standing Beside Patients: How Locums Help Provide Lasting Cancer Care
May 27, 2026 | LocumTenens.com
As the cancer survivor population grows, so does the demand for ongoing oncology care. Approximately 18.6 million people in the US were living with a history of the disease as of January 2025, a number projected to exceed 22 million by 2035. Locum providers can step in when vacancies or volume surges hit programs without disrupting treatment schedules or stretching permanent staff past capacity.
Oncology is a specialty where continuity carries real clinical weight. Staffing firms placing physicians and APPs here need to think beyond credentials, since bedside communication and care-team fit matter as much as procedure lists. Hospitals and other facilities have a strong case for keeping coverage options ready before a need becomes urgent, because access failures in high-acuity specialties compound quickly.
Spring Into Action: Game-Changing Locum Tenens Staffing Strategies for Better Healthcare Systems in 2026 and Beyond
May 27, 2026 | Annashae Healthcare Staffing + Consulting
The financial case for locums is more nuanced than the hourly rate alone. Reduced overtime, lower recruitment costs, and protected patient throughput can offset the premium, particularly when a prolonged vacancy is the alternative. It’s a calculation worth running before assuming temporary coverage is the more expensive option.
“Trying before buying” is also a notable strategy. Locum assignments give healthcare employers a window to assess clinical fit, communication style, and cultural alignment prior to committing to a permanent hire, reducing turnover risk in roles that are costly to refill. Cleaner credentialing execution and tighter role definition are what clients are asking for more often, and delivering on both consistently is what separates reliable staffing partners from transactional ones.
Locum Leaders
- Wapiti Medical Staffing names Hannah Shirkey its new Chief Executive Officer, with Kim Herrmann transitioning from CEO to Chief Operating Officer.
- AMN Healthcare names Patrick Hinkle its Vice President of Sales, Physician Solutions, and welcomes Eric Palmer to its Board of Directors.
- OnCall Solutions appoints Lee Boatman-Alexander as its new Director of Production.
- IPL Health Staffing launches its new blog, a content hub featuring healthcare trends and staffing solutions.
Hire Power
Top 10 States With Rising Demand for Physicians
May 28, 2026 | Conexiant
Physician shortages are expected to deepen across multiple states over the next decade, and the numbers are specific. Florida could face a shortage of nearly 18,000 physicians by 2035, while Texas is flagging projected gaps across general internal medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics, and psychiatry. Georgia is forecast to be short just over 8,000 doctors by 2030, and Tennessee is looking at nearly 3,900 by 2035, with physician demand expected to grow roughly 10% over the same period.
The state-by-state breakdown functions as a demand map for where time-to-fill pressure is likely to remain highest, particularly in primary care and hospital-based coverage. Agencies can use it to prioritize sourcing pipelines and licensing strategy in high-friction states. Healthcare organizations in these markets have a strong case for implementing locum coverage earlier, before scheduling gaps narrow the options.
Primary Care, Reimagined: Workforce and Care Model Innovation in a Modern Age
May 19, 2026 | McKinsey
Primary care access is a capacity problem that has national consequences, with inequitable access translating into the equivalent of 45 million people with unmet needs. The report uses an interactive model to show current supply and demand, then maps how different staffing and technology interventions could shift the equation. Adding clinicians isn’t the only solution available, and the report makes that case with some specificity.
Team-based care, role redesign, and technology aimed at expanding usable capacity from existing headcount are all part of the conversation. New models can reduce pressure over time, but they also create temporary instability during the transition. Locums often serve as the bridge that keeps access intact while those changes take hold, and assignments may increasingly reflect redesigned roles and different coverage expectations as a result.
Addressing the Gastroenterologist Shortage
May 28, 2026 | Medicus Healthcare Solutions
More than 69% of US counties have no active gastroenterologist, and the supply gap is projected to widen. A national shortage of 510 full-time equivalent gastroenterologists is projected for 2026, with demand continuing to climb as the population ages and GI conditions among younger adults rise. Fellowship training capacity is also a limiting factor, with nearly 39% of applicants who ranked gastroenterology as their preferred specialty going unmatched this year.
The locum footprint is already substantial. NALTO estimates roughly 52,000 GI physicians take assignments each year, and an estimated 19% have done so in some capacity, according to recent data from Medicus. With a median of 186 days to fill an open position and each physician generating roughly $3.5 million in average net annual hospital revenue, the cost of leaving a vacancy unaddressed adds up quickly.
Making the Rounds
The Most Promising Innovations in Healthcare Today
May 27, 2026 | NorTek Medical Staffing, Inc.
Global healthcare innovation investment surpassed $30 billion this year, with AI, digital health, and clinical automation accounting for much of that growth. More than 80% of health systems are adopting AI tools for diagnostics and predictive analytics, with models helping hospitals identify sepsis, cardiac events, and patient deterioration hours earlier than traditional methods. Intelligent scheduling and ambient documentation tools are also trimming administrative work by an estimated 20% to 40%, giving clinicians more time for patient care.
Telehealth use remains seven times higher than pre-pandemic levels, and roughly 15 million US patients are projected to be enrolled in remote monitoring programs by 2027. Hospital-at-home models are gaining ground as well, with studies suggesting 30% of inpatient care could be safely delivered outside a facility with the right clinical oversight. Together, these shifts are redefining what on-site presence means, and staffing models that haven’t accounted for hybrid care environments may find themselves out of step.
Beyond the EHR: Why One CIO Believes AI Will Dwarf Every Prior Health IT Shift
May 28, 2026 | Healthcare IT News
Healthcare IT has moved through two distinct eras, hospital information systems and the EHR, and a CIO at a major children’s health system believes the third will make both look small. AI is advancing fast enough that strategies can shift within a quarter, and facilities that wait for the market to stabilize before building governance and organizational vision may find themselves well behind. Leaders are being urged to use AI tools themselves, not just oversee their deployment, to understand where the technology is actually headed.
Locum tenens sits squarely in the path of that change. As AI gets embedded into documentation, triage, and clinical decision support, providers moving between organizations will encounter different versions of those tools at every stop, with little time built in for adjustment. Facilities investing in AI infrastructure now would do well to standardize processes where possible, since variation across systems is already a friction point for temporary coverage, and deeper adoption is likely to add more.
Physician Specialties Ranked by Greatest Shortages in 2038
May 28, 2026 | Becker’s Clinical Leadership
HRSA workforce simulation forecasts covering 35 physician specialties from 2023 through 2038 point to a shortage of 141,160 full-time equivalent clinicians by 2038. Vascular surgery tops the shortage list, followed by ophthalmology, thoracic surgery, and plastic surgery, while emergency medicine is projected to see the greatest surplus. Family medicine, hospital medicine, anesthesiology, general internal medicine, and geriatrics all appear in the shortage column as well.
The estimates illustrate where provider competition is likely to intensify over the next decade. Locum staffing firms can expect rate pressure and longer lead times in hospital-based specialties where service-line continuity is hardest to maintain. Health systems whose hardest-to-recruit roles already appear on the shortage list have a strong case for treating these numbers as a planning prompt rather than a distant concern.
