Locum, Physician Staffing Leaders Named to SIA ‘40 Under 40’, Over 10% of the Total
7/19/23
Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) recently released its seventh annual “40 Under 40” list, and five of the names belonged to the locum tenens or physician staffing community. The annual list from SIA recognizes “the next generation of leaders” in the staffing and workforce solutions industry.
SIA selected honorees who work with US companies that stand out as industry leaders and “elevate the [recruiting] ecosystem” through their efforts.
In recent years, the healthcare staffing industry has faced significant challenges, from “The Great Resignation” to high levels of burnout and a physician shortage approaching “crisis” levels. Despite those challenges, these individuals have made remarkable contributions in helping staff locum tenens physicians for communities in need.
SIA President Barry Asin congratulated the 2023 honorees for their commitment to pushing forward despite the difficulties, bringing a fresh wave of leadership to the industry. Asin believes that the trials this year’s class faced have made them “stronger, better, and more driven than ever” to shape the future of the staffing industry.
Representatives from this year’s list who help provide locum tenens healthcare staffing are:
Michelle Bousquet
VP, Organizational Effectiveness, Floyd Lee Locums
Ethan McWilliams
Co-CEO, Wilderness Medical Staffing
Steven Endsley
VP, Workforce Solutions, AMN Healthcare
Tara Osseck
Regional VP, Recruiting, Jackson Physician Search
Parth Bhakta
Founder, and CEO, of Vivian Health
Read the press release from SIA, see more in this month’s edition of Staffing Industry Review magazine, and view the complete list with bios for all 40 honorees.
La Vida Locum
Use of Locums Increases, Recruiting Teams Downsize in the Battle for Top Talent
7/14/2023
Retaining physicians is as much of a challenge as recruiting new physicians. A new report from the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) said 48% of searches conducted over six years (2016-21) have been to replace a physician who had left a facility. The departure rate has also steadily risen in that timeframe, climbing 16% since 2018.
CHG Healthcare presented eight of its key findings from the most recent AAPPR benchmarking report, which include:
- The top reason for provider turnover differs between physicians and APPs, with retirement being a significant factor for physicians and compensation for APPs.
- Physicians are in high demand, but the percentage of searches filled decreased for the fourth consecutive year. High demand has changed the game for recruiters, forcing them to be more competitive with compensation, and ask tough questions about other offers candidates are receiving.
- Primary care specialties are the most sought-after positions, and positions in otorhinolaryngology, dermatology, and urology are the “least likely to be filled.”
- Locum tenens use has increased. The most sought-after specialty for locum tenens searches was anesthesia at 49%, with internal medicine being the lowest at nearly 1%.
- The time needed to fill positions has decreased, taking 103 days for physician searches and 62 days for APP searches in 2021.
- Recruiters are doing more with less. Agencies have handled more searches, averaging 42 during the year, which led to increased workload and stress.
- Recruitment departments have reduced their annual budgets, resulting in a decrease in recruiter salaries and increased turnover.
- The typical recruiter’s salary decreased by 2% in 2021. More than one-fifth of recruiters left their positions. Larger organizations have experienced less turnover than smaller organizations.
Agencies are encouraging recruiters to use technology like applicant tracking systems (ATS) to help them manage their workloads. And the report says recruiters are encouraged to advocate for themselves and make a “business case” with their employer for additional resources to expand their teams.
Learn more from CHG’s take on the AAPPR report in the full article.
Ethical Recruitment Strategies in Hiring Compassionate, Qualified Locum Tenens Staff
7/24/23
Locum tenens providers are vital to a healthcare facility’s recruitment strategy, a notion that facilities and recruiters have come to terms with in recent years. However, these strategies have to be executed with an emphasis on ethics and integrity so that facilities hire qualified, compassionate healthcare providers who will prioritize patients.
TheraEx Locums recently wrote about those ethical considerations and effective strategies for locum tenens staffing, exploring how healthcare facilities can optimize recruitment to uphold ethical standards.
Ethical recruitment means requiring staff to verify candidates’ credentials and perform thorough background checks. There also needs to be clear selection criteria, which strictly prioritize the qualifications and experience of a candidate over factors like gender, race, or age. Reputable agencies help streamline the process and only find providers that meet each facility’s ethical standards.
Take a deeper dive into TheraEx’s advice to set the ethical bar for your facility as it recruits providers.
Insider Tips to Streamline Locum Tenens Recruitment
7/7/23
Hiring locum tenens providers is the best way to maintain smooth operations in a constantly changing healthcare environment and ensure patients receive the best care.
When hiring locums, here are four strategies to help your team onboard them efficiently:
Strategy No. 1: Make sure you know what you need before sourcing candidates. Make a list of certifications you’re looking for and communicate that to all applicants.
Strategy No. 2: Limit multi-round interviews. Interviews are valuable for assessing personality and fit, but they also cause delays in the hiring process. You don’t have to overhaul the hiring process completely. Start first by limiting needless multi-round interviews.
Strategy No. 3: Communicate clearly with your recruitment team. Tell them exactly what you need, and then trust them to make the best possible hire. Defining staffing needs and providing timely feedback on potential candidates can accelerate hiring.
Strategy No. 4: Fast-track a client’s credentialing. Do this by contacting the medical staff office early and clarifying the requirements for temporary privileges.
Read Integrity Locums’ in-depth article on these strategies to help healthcare facilities quickly find and onboard locum tenens professionals.
Locum Leaders
Interim Physicians Unveils New Website, Brand Identity
7/27/23
Interim Physicians recently unveiled a new website and brandidentity. The firm was founded in 1979 by Dr. Ken Teufel, a pioneer in the locum tenens staffing industry. “Dr. Ken” who passed away in 2021, was driven by a commitment to improving healthcare access and delivery for communities in need of a flexible staffing solution.
Interim’s updated brand identity combines elements of the past and the future, with a new tagline, “Quality Care, Quality Assignments, Every Time,” which reflects their dedication to maintaining high standards in physician recruitment, customer service, and patient care.
Interim Physicians CEO, Tim Hand, emphasized the brand’s “hire calling” and commitment to providing locum tenens physician staffing solutions and an “investment in innovation.”
In addition to the brand update, the company also expanded its online presence to offer a comprehensive resource center with company insights, industry updates, career guidance, and articles for both locum tenens physicians and healthcare facilities.
Check out Interim’s new website here.
MDStaffers Named to “Fast 50” List of Growing Businesses in Sacramento
7/19/23
MDstaffers landed on the Sacramento Business Journal’s “Fast 50” list for the fourth consecutive year.
Each year, the list highlights rapidly growing companies in the Sacramento area. The Fast 50 list spotlights a company’s revenue growth over three years. To secure a spot on the list, companies must submit financial data that has been independently authenticated by a public accounting firm.
MDstaffers specializes in placing physicians, advanced practicepractitioners, and mental health clinicians in both on-site and virtual care settings on a temporary or permanent basis.
Ryan Larkin, CEO of MDstaffers, attributed the achievement to his team’s resilience and adaptability, acknowledging the crucial role that clinicians, many of which they have placed, play in a patient’s life.
Read the full press release from MDStaffers for details.
PRN Healthcare Looks to Expand Footprint with New Locum Tenens Division
6/26/23
PRN Healthcare announced the launch of its new locum tenens division. The addition to PRN is a move they hope will strengthen the company’s position in the healthcare staffing market.
PRN’s locum tenens division will focus on providing long-termsolutions to support continuous access to quality healthcare. The team is staffed by recruiters with decades of locum experience.
PRN Healthcare president Pete Hietpas expects the company’s new division to be a valuable addition to PRN Healthcare, providing innovative solutions to support healthcare organizations and professionals.
Find out more in the full press release from PRN Healthcare.
Hire Power
ChatGPT for Sales: Elevate Your Sales Team’s Communication, Efficiency, and Outcomes
In a recent Butler Street webinar, “ChatGPT for Sales,” attendees discovered the potential to use ChatGPT as a sales assistant. According to webinar presenters, Managing Partners Mike Jacoutot and Mary Ann McLaughlin, clients who used ChatGPT as a sales assistant claim to have boosted their productivity by 72%.
A Few Key Takeaways:
- ChatGPT can become integral to a salesperson’s learning curriculum and professional development.
- With AI come potential issues in sales like privacy concerns, copyright issues, plagiarism risks, data misuse, and a risk of miscommunication.
- Technology helps manage transactions, while people are the ones who manage those relationships. Sales will always be a relationship business.
- ChatGPT is a practical sales assistant that should be used whenever possible to streamline sales efforts.
The webinar highlighted some of the ways to solve customer problems using ChatGPT using detailed written prompts that could help achieve the most accurate responses.
Four types of prompts elicit more accurate responses:
- Instructional: Prompts with explicit commands such as “draft an email to a customer apologizing for poor service.”
- Exploratory: This is a prompt used when you need a starting point for generating imaginative content, such as “What would the world be like if dogs could talk?”
- Scaffolding: When you need to provide a framework or structure to build upon, such as telling AI to “write as if they are a salesperson for a company that does x.”
- Interactive: These are the types of prompts that facilitate interaction and engagement.
Upcoming workshops on ChatGPT will focus on boosting meetings with ChatGPT assistance and planning successful sales meetings with ChatGPT support.
NALTO’s Fall Fly-in: Sign Up today for Early Bird Registration!
7/24/23
If you plan to attend NALTO’s annual Fall Fly-in but haven’t yet registered, be sure to take advantage of the early-bird registration discounts. The deadline for early-bird registration is today.
What to know about this year’s event:
- The conference will be held Sept. 26-27 in Park City, Utah, a mountain resort town in the eastern Wasatch Mountains.
The keynote presentation will be led by Teri Gibson, an industry veteran who oversees the marketing strategy, research, media, and email outreach for CHG Healthcare. Gibson will present on the “State of Locum Tenens” and showcase insights and trends within the industry. - The event is a perfect opportunity for recruiters and agency reps to get some face-to-face and network with others in the industry — Locumpedia will attend again this year!
Find more general information at this link and sign up for early-bird registration while there is still time!
Mastering the Art of Recruitment Messages: Key Takeaways from Doximity’s Webinar
7/18/23
Doximity conducted a webinar on “The Formula You Need for Effective Recruitment Messages” on July 18. The webinar covered essential components of successful recruitment messages, including engaging keywords for subject lines, message body content, and what to avoid when communicating with physicians.
Samantha Jones, the guest speaker for the webinar and client success manager at Doximity, emphasized the importance of using position-centric keywords, keeping content engaging and entertaining, and avoiding common pitfalls like exclamation marks and abbreviations.
Jones also shared some best practices for follow-up campaigns, including:
- The preferred frequency for follow-up communications, which Jones says is “2-3 times, every 2-3 days.”
- How to utilize search filters in your campaigns targeting specific specialties, for instance: primary care physicians, physician’s assistants, or CRNAs.
- Creating a sense of urgency in a follow-up whenever you feel it’s appropriate. For example, “This job may be closing soon, and I don’t want you to miss the opportunity!”
Jones also shared that some of the “most engaging keywords for subject lines” were benefits-focused, like “leadership,” “practice where you play,” and “sign-on bonus.”
Doximity will continue its webinar series on Aug. 8 with “A Look Inside: Talent Finder from the Physician Perspective.” Registration is open for that webinar now.
Making the Rounds
The Evolving Physician Landscape: Key Insights on Ownership
7/24/23
The physician landscape is entering a new era of employment. Over the last five years, private equity (PE) firms, physician groups, and health insurers have been responsible for 90% of physician practice acquisitions, with hospitals and health systems responsible for just 6%.
Physicians claim that increased costs led to more of them opting out of owning their practices and electing to become employed by health systems and other corporate entities.
The shift in physician practice ownership has four implications for providers and professionals who work in healthcare systems.
- Physician turnover – turnover is expected to increase as physicians now have more employment options, leading to reduced loyalty to a single employer.
- Clinical freedom – Growth often impacts autonomy because as practices grow in size and integrate shared goals, clinicians lose some of their freedom to practice as they see fit.
- Vertical ecosystems– corporate buyers are focused on building vertical ecosystems and view physician ownership as crucial to controlling patient relationships.
- Integration – Merging thoughts and strategies becomes essential as corporate employment and growth continue. Successful integration is vital to supporting strategic goals and differentiating between holding companies and care delivery platforms in the healthcare industry.
Learn more about the impact of the change in ownership for healthcare facilities.
Demographic Changes Fuel A Growing Provider Shortage Amidst Pandemic Fallout
7/22/23
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a growing shortage of healthcare professionals in the United States. Provider shortage should persist because demographic changes require specialized care for older patients with chronic conditions. As demand for healthcare services increases for older patients, fewer providers can treat them because they’ve left the healthcare field.
Burnout among physicians has been particularly concerning, with 63% reporting signs of burnout, according to a study published by the Mayo Clinic in September 2022.
Many Americans in rural communities, or Americans without adequate insurance, have to rely on emergency rooms as a last resort. This causes a strain on emergency room staff and that strain directly leads to burnout and increased patient costs. Healthcare systems should look for options like recruiting specialists in locum tenens roles to help alleviate shortages before it impacts the quality of care, longer wait times, and higher overall healthcare costs.
Learn which roles will be in high demand in the next decade in the full article here, and find out which roles will face shortages in the coming years. according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Socially Speaking
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Second Opinion
Doctors Report Safety, Staffing Issues Some of The Biggest Concerns, Leading Cause of Burnout
7/12/23
According to a JAMA Health Forum study, nearly one-third of physicians and half of nurses in a hospital setting report burnout. The survey took responses from more than 21,000 physicians and nurses at nationally-acclaimed “Magnet” hospitals, which the surveyors found surprising, considering Magnet hospitals are reportedly the “best” places to work for providers.
Researchers from JAMA found that safety and staffing problems were some of the biggest concerns of these clinicians. 12% of the physicians surveyed said their hospitals performed unfavorably on patient safety.
These fears over safety and the lack of staffing also led 42% of physicians to report lacking confidence in the hospital’s management.
Learn more from Physician’s Weekly or read the full JAMA report here.
Physician Burnout: A Pending Challenge for Healthcare Systems
7/23/23
Healthcare systems haven’t agreed on a comprehensive solution to physician burnout. Despite calls from organizations like the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Medicine, and the U.S. Surgeon General to address burnout, most hospitals and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) have not made it a strategic priority.
A survey published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety showed that only about one-third of healthcare organizations assessed the prevalence of burnout among their clinicians in the previous three years, indicating that most are in the early stages of addressing well-being and have yet to find a solution to reverse burnout.
The study showed nearly half of the responding healthcare organizations implemented some intervention to address burnout, and fewer than 30% adopted a comprehensive approach to address well-being.
It emphasizes the significance of measuring well-being, obtaining clinician feedback, and identifying priority areas for intervention. Additionally, the study suggests appointing leaders responsible for well-being initiatives and providing sufficient resources to address burnout effectively.
Access the full article from the American Medical Association to learn more.
Physician Turnover Trends Increase, No Sign Yet of Impact from COVID-19
7/25/23
Physician turnover is up overall, but there’s been no indication yet that the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant factor in that increase.
A study from the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that physician turnover is increasing, with the annual rate rising by 43 percent between 2010 and 2018, going from 5.3 percent to 7.6 percent. However, turnover rates were slightly lower in the second and third quarters of 2020 than in 2019.
The reasons behind the rise in turnover remain unclear, but researchers speculate it could be related to cyclical economic changes specific to the healthcare industry. The timeframe for this study overlapped with the Great Recession (2007-2009), during which more physicians left their practices, possibly due to the introduction of a program that incentivized the use of EHR systems, which health leaders have criticized. EHR has also notoriously been linked to physician turnover as well.
The study also highlights trends in turnover, with rural physicians being more likely to stop practicing, which raises concerns about healthcare access for vulnerable populations and shows the potential of increased locum tenens access in these communities.
The study calls for further research, especially considering the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare industry. You can find more about the survey here and see RevCycle Intelligence’s article on this report.
